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Rt. Hon. Helen Liddell - Former Minister for Energy and Competitiveness in Europe (Jul 1999 - Jun 2001)Launch of the 3e's Initiative |
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the national launch, here in Bolton, of the DTI's 3e's initiative: e.business, exports and the euro. Thank you for coming; I hope that what we have to tell you today will change the way you see your future. I am grateful to the North West Regional Euro Forum for organising this event, to Siemens and to McIntyre and Kings for their support for it, and to such an impressive team of guest speakers for sharing their experience and expertise. This magnificent new Reebok Stadium is a fitting venue for a truly 21st-century initiative, and even more so for an event to spur you, our forward-looking small and medium-sized firms, into putting on your running shoes and competing. And, given the European dimension of 3e's and my own Ministerial responsibilities, I am pleased to say that, for this morning at least, we have got Bolton Wanderers into Europe. This launch is exactly the kind of thing Stephen Byers had in mind recently when he redefined the role of the DTI. Active, not interventionist, was the phrase he used, and that is precisely the tone we have aimed for here ,active in support of your enterprise, not trying to do your job for you. My purpose today is not to second-guess the men and women behind our successful small and medium-sized businesses; you would rightly see that as patronising. It is, rather, to help you recognise the challenges and seize the opportunities you face from the upsurge of e.business, from the demand for exports that it is generating and from the advent of the euro as a trading currency. Our programme this morning, and throughout our national 3e's campaign, is built around a hard-headed business message. It highlights these three linked challenges and helps SMEs to meet them. Each of these challenges embodies a tough reality. The reality of the way e.business is revolutionising our understanding of business. The reality that the Net is stimulating global trade. And, finally, the reality that the euro has already been adopted by eleven countries and that, if we want to win customers in those countries, we have to get used to using it. Between them, these realities will change the business landscape irreversibly and dramatically. Behind that change lies a simple and stark truth: any business ignoring these trends will be left at the starting gate. Even if you don't have a website, your keenest competitor will,maybe a firm on the other side of the world whom you have never even heard of until repeat orders from your traditional customers suddenly dry up. What's more, this could happen even if all your customers are UK based and you have never contemplated exporting. You cannot buck these trends, but you can harness them to put your company ahead of the field. And you will see from the case studies we have put together that some of your peers, maybe competitors of yours, are already achieving some pretty impressive results by embracing the message of 3e's. Like all great challenges, the challenge of e.business cuts two ways. If you rise to it, your business can grow and prosper.But, if you ignore it or fluff your response, you may struggle to survive. The sector is growing, and fast; on latest estimates worldwide, trade over the Internet will grow from just over $100 billion last year to more than $1,300 billion in 2003; in other words, it will almost double year on year. The UK e.business market alone by 2003 is predicted to be worth nearly $50 billion. We live in an era when huge sums can be transferred, gigantic orders placed, maybe even the futures of entire businesses decided, at the click of a mouse. The Internet offers greater choice than ever before, plus the ability to exercise that choice in an instant. And, as it does, a new and more demanding breed of customer is emerging. I should know. I am one of them. I order my family's groceries over the Internet from Tesco. I am a satisfied customer so far. But, if I don't like the products Iam sent, the prices I am quoted or the standard of service I receive, I can log onto a rival supermarket just as easily. And Tesco knows it, too. That's the market, 21st-Century style. Thousands of people like me are discovering the scope to conduct our daily business over the Net, and soon there will be millions. This is a trend the Government welcomes, and encourages. Only last week, the Prime Minister launched the UK Online initiative, an ambitious agenda for getting government, businesses and citizens online. And, once we are online, we start visiting websites, and buying. The growing purchasing power of individual citizens, and even more of the companies large and small who are starting to trade on-line, encapsulates the challenge and the risk of e.business. There is the opportunity to pick up business through a new customer, big or small, visiting your website,but there is also the scope for losing that business if you don't give that customer what they want or expect. The Web is not just a new sales channel,it's much more than that. It's a vehicle for change in the way the business world operates. It is triggering both an increase in competition and, as I have mentioned, a radical change in the way customers behave. Nor is the Web simply revolutionising the behaviour of the individual customer; it is changing the way businesses work with each other. Supply chains are being shortened, accelerating the way business is done as companies find it easier to shop around. Contracts are no longer being placed for a year ;now orders are made days in advance on a Web-based purchasing system. If you are not there, you won't be in business. This revolution poses obvious threats for any business caught unprepared, but it also offers wonderful opportunities in opening up new markets for you. What's more, it is taking place at a time when the euro is creating on your doorstep a single-currency market of 290 million consumers, rising to 300 million at the start of next year when Greece comes in. The arrival of the euro isn't the only incentive you currently have to build markets on the Continent. Europe's Single Market, with all the advantages it offers to business, is now closer to completion than ever before. And the European Union itself is set for further enlargement as countries in eastern Europe, the Balkans and beyond, several of them already profitable markets for UK firms, are accepted into membership. My Department will shortly be publishing a briefing paper on the impact on UK business of the next rounds of enlargement. If you do business in the applicant countries or are hungry for new opportunities, you will find it very useful, so watch the DTI's website for details. And, if you have any comments on the issues raised in it, please let me know. We're there to listen. The advent of a single currency in twelve European countries, including some of the UK's key markets, allows you to quote a single price for each of your products to this entire market. And whether this country is in or out of the single currency, UK business has to seize the opportunity created. You can be sure your competitors around the world won't pass this one up. 3e's is a Government initiative and one I am proud to launch. The promotion and active support of enterprise through the provision of practical advice is a cornerstone of our policies, and one whose value I can measure as Minister for Business in Europe. The moment your business, or any other in the UK, is contacted by a firm in the Eurozone ;perhaps after someone there has visited your website - you will be confronted with the euro as a real, live, trading currency. You need to be ready for the moment when, instead of having to trade or price separately in marks, francs and lire you have just one set of calculations to make. The 3e's programme is designed to help you prepare for that moment;keeping the upheaval and the costs to a minimum. It may be useful if I restate our position on membership of the euro. We are anxious to see the single currency succeed in the countries where it has been adopted and, if it is successful, we believe the UK should join it,provided the Government's five economic tests are met. Against this background our policy is,and consistently has been ,to prepare and decide. To make the necessary preparations to join the single currency when the economic tests have been met, and then to hold a referendum so that the people of this country can make a democratic and informed choice. We have always said that making a decision in this Parliament to join the single currency was not realistic. The Government is committed to making an assessment of the five economic tests early in the next Parliament. Firms of all sizes in the UK and throughout Europe will be facing an historic challenge as e.business takes off. And it is a challenge this Government is making an unprecedented effort to help British business prepare for. We have been joined in this effort by every other government in of the European Union. On the Prime Minister's initiative, a special EU Summit was called in Lisbon back in March to decide how best to promote enterprise, e.business and deregulation, and the results were dramatic. Every EU government, inside and outside the Eurozone, came away committed to making Europe the world leader in the knowledge-based economy by 2010. That commitment involves some pretty radical changes for some governments and EU institutions and the way they think; it requires a bonfire of red tape - another UK initiative - and the breaking down of remaining barriers to a true single market. But it is a commitment we intend so see implemented, and already a follow-up summit has been organised for Stockholm next Spring to monitor progress. Already since Lisbon, an EU directive to give e.commerce a fair wind and a sensible legal framework has been pushed through with record speed, to take effect by the end of next year. In future, a business will be able to provide on-line services right across the EU, while normally only having to comply with the laws of its own home country ,and that should be a big boost to your competitiveness. Once again, the UK was in the lead on this. In addition, new EU-wide mechanisms will help to resolve disputes between traders on the Internet and their customers without their necessarily having to go to court. It is vital for confident e.trading that when things do go wrong, those involved have the assurance that there are efficient, speedy and inexpensive means of redress. In this context, I was very pleased recently to sign the regulations that will bring the EU Distance Selling Directive into force in this country at the end of next month. This directive is one more product of the Government's strategy of active and positive involvement in Europe. It gives consumers who purchase goods and services by phone, mail order, fax or over the internet greater confidence and protection. They will, in future, have the right to receive clear information prior to purchase, a seven-day cooling off period to withdraw from a contract and the right to receive what they have ordered within 30 days, unless otherwise agreed. And, if consumers know where they stand, the more solid a foundation you have for trading over the Net. That isn't all we have done. In June, Europe's leaders signed up to a Small Firms Charter to boost enterprise and slash red tape,and that was another UK initiative. A whole raft of other incentives, from easier start-up funding and access to technology to better training for Europe's current and future workforce, have been agreed in principle as part of the strategy for creating a world-beating e.economy. These are already in the process of adoption. And, crucially for you, 3e's dovetails into this highly ambitious, but entirely practical programme. We regard this message as vital to the UK's competitive future. So we shall be carrying it all over the country: to a regional launch in Leicester tomorrow by my colleague Patricia Hewitt, aimed especially at the Asian business community, and then to a series of 3e's breakfasts throughout the UK to brief business people on their own turf. At all these events, we shall be challenging entrepreneurs like yourselves with the same basic questions. Are you equipped to handle the export demand you could trigger just by setting up a website? Can you cope with fluctuations in demand for your products or services from abroad as interest in your website waxes and wanes? Can you distribute your products on time and intact to anyone who orders them? Are you equipped to deal with technical queries in foreign languages and take payments in different currencies? How good is your after-sales network, here and overseas? Can it cope with the new demand? Have you pitched your export pricing right? And will that price structure cope with the arrival of the euro? What about your traditional customers who can now read your competitors? websites and vote with their feet? Are you doing enough to keep them? And are you monitoring the Web to discover where your future competition lies? You have probably thought of most of these issues yourselves. You wouldn't be here today if the challenges I've talked about weren't already on your minds. But it's worth my reminding you that if you haven't anticipated these questions or prepared the ground for when the orders start coming in, the new demand created by your venture onto the web can all too easily dry up and you may not get a second chance. Don't forget, customers like me,and your business customers - are getting fussier as the choice available improves. Even if you score a huge success in e.exports, it's vitally important to get your currency and pricing strategy right, which again is where the euro fits in. You could be inundated with orders because your website is so appealing, be fully geared up to meet the demand, but find yourself with a whole new set of issues to face,and even losing money on every item you ship out. 3e's will help you avoid that trap by helping you price your products and services keenly. As you enter the world of e.exports, the DTI can also help you through Trade Partners UK, the new service brand of British Trade International. Its goal is to increase British business success overseas, and SMEs are its key customers. SMEs are particularly well equipped to meet the challenges of today's highly fragmented global markets, and Trade Partners UK can work with you to better exploit the opportunities, assessing your readiness to export and helping you prepare effectively to enter markets in Europe and around the world. In its role as supporter and facilitator, in all the ways I have mentioned, the DTI is eager to see you succeed, and to help you to do so. Our aim is to offer maximum practical support with a minimum of red tape. That's good news for you. But it's also good news for people of all ages who are eager to work in the technology-based economy of this new century. SMEs generate two-thirds of Europe's new jobs, and with 20 million jobs needed over the next decade if we are to tackle long-term unemployment, your role in the process of job creation is crucial. And the more you succeed and grow your businesses, the greater our chances of defeating social exclusion. But you can't be expected to take on recruits unless you have a pool of motivated and well-trained labour to draw from. That is why we made sure that the Lisbon summit also triggered a training revolution so that e.enterprise in Europe can secure the skills it needs to flourish. Every school in the EU will have access to the Net by the end of next year. Teachers have been given until the end of 2002 to develop their own Internet skills. Schoolchildren and older workers alike will receive IT training relevant to the job market. A common European diploma in IT skills will be introduced, and a common CV format to make it easier for e.employers to pick the best of the highly-trained and mobile applicants coming onto the job market. And it will be the businesses that have successfully met the challenges now posed by the 3e's,e.business, the euro and exports ;who will be out there looking to hire the best and the brightest for their next stages of expansion. In these few minutes, I have told you why I believe the 3e's initiative can make a real difference to the way business does business in this new century. Shortly, you will be hearing from four men at the cutting edge of e.business: Andrew Rollerson, Dennis Keeling, David Hallam, Bob Bischof and Peter Moran. Later, you will have a chance to visit our Cyber Café and exhibition, to compare notes and talk to people who can give you longer-term support as you prepare to meet the challenges. But now it's time to let 3e's speak for itself;and what better way than by letting you have a quick look at what you will find in the 3e's CD-Rom you will be taking away with you: [CD-Rom still of the home page to appear on the screen. The home page includes the navigation buttons which reflect the content of the CD-Rom.] The CD-Rom is a treasure trove of practical support for your business. It is not aimed at the IT expert, but at those of you who take the business decisions. We have developed it over the last six months by listening to what businesses have told us works, and what does not work. We have distilled this information to create the content of the CD-Rom. It includes: *3e's "the movie" a multimedia presentation narrated by Judith Hann; *A resource centre with planners which will prompt you to consider the impact of the 3e's on all aspects of your business, and help you to build your own tailor-made response; *Links through to a number of the websites that other busi9nesses have recommended to us as good sources of advice; and *A series of short video clips of businesses discussing their experiences of the 3e's. I would like to show you one of these now: [We will then launch a 60-second video clip of a businessman talking about the 3e's. His closing words are: "To simplify the process, offer euros,the54re's minimal exchange risk and make it simple for your customers."] We will be showing more of these clips between the presentations this morning. I hope I have whetted your appetite for the message of 3e's, a highly practical message designed to help you meet the combined challenges of e.business, exports and the euro. I hope that when next we meet, you will each have a success story to tell as a result of the 3e's initiative. So enjoy the rest of the morning, ladies and gentlemen, and the very best of luck. |
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Other speeches by Rt. Hon. Helen Liddell - Former Minister for Energy and Competitiveness in Europe (Jul 1999 - Jun 2001)
(the following are available from the archive) |
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