| Good evening everyone. It’s a
pleasure to be here tonight and to be amongst so many current and future
business leaders. I am particularly pleased to be able to speak to you
tonight as we approach Enterprise Week because it is you who will play
such a key role in the future of our businesses and society.
As many of you know, I am a Midlander and I’m
justifiably proud of this region’s tradition of enterprise and,
particularly, of our history of manufacturing excellence. The Midlands’
reputation as a centre for manufacturing is known across the globe. Our
businesses have sold their goods and services in world markets since the
Industrial Revolution began here in the West Midlands. Manufacturing
continues to be more important to the Midlands than any other part of the
country. The Midlands is home to a multitude of household names and brands
including Cadbury, Wedgwood, JCB, Dunlop Aerospace, Jaguar, Landrover, Vax
and Lucas in the West and Boots, Walker’s Crisps, Rolls Royce, Toyota in
the East to name but a few.
This has not happened by accident. The Midlands is
a great location for business but there is no room for complacency nor
time to rest on our laurels just because we have a great track record.
The world is rapidly changing. Trade
liberalisation, the freeing of capital markets, the growth of new
democracies of Central and Eastern Europe and their admission to the EU,
and the Internet and ICT are all changing the world. China and India look
set to transform it over the next 10 to 15 years.
China already manufactures 25% of the world’s
washing machines, 50% of the world’s cameras and 90% of the worlds’ toys.
Both China and India have the capacity to grow at 3 to 4 times the rate of
the UK for the foreseeable future. The rise of Asia presents huge
challenges, but it also offers huge opportunities.
My visits as Trade Minister have convinced me both
that the rapid changes we have seen are only the start and the pace of
changes will get even faster, and that we in the UK can successfully
exploit these changes to our advantage.
In September I accompanied the Prime Minister to
China and India with forty British and European Business leaders, the
biggest such group to undertake such a mission for many years. The trip
was very successful and we were able to announce several deals during the
visit. It showed what can be achieved.
As business people, it is up to all of you in the
room now to grasp these opportunities and to demonstrate that you can lead
your businesses to sustained success by innovating, adapting and refining
your business practices which will enable you to take advantage of new
trading conditions and markets. And I’m not just talking about
manufacturing. We need to see continued growth, in real terms, in the
service sector and we need to achieve our aim of closing the gap between
the best and worst performing regions by lifting those underperforming
areas at a faster pace so that we ‘level-up’ to the standards of the best.
Those changes can only be achieved by business leaders and government
working together to embrace and drive through change.
It is not a failure, nor should it be regarded as
one, when a business decides to outsource some of its components or to
move some of its manufacturing capacity to lower cost countries where
materials and labour costs are cheaper. It is simple, sound, strategic
sense. The UK needs to concentrate on the areas where we have a
competitive advantage and that means innovation, design, high technology,
high added value, niche products and services.
We will rise to the challenge because we are an
instinctively open trading nation. We don’t believe in protectionism. As
Sir Digby Jones said recently when talking about globalisation, ‘Britain
is the one country that really gets it’. And we do, and this puts us all
in a strong position to seize the opportunities that the rise of China and
India are creating and to turn them to our own advantage and profit.
For every ten pounds that is spent in this country
on a toy manufactured in China only one pound ends up in China. The rest
stays in Britain via the likes of licensing, intellectual property rights,
advertising, copyright and marketing. It is up to us to ensure that we
continue to invest in research and development, to innovate, to develop
intellectual property and strengthen our competitive edge.
We should never neglect manufacturing where the
Midlands’ wealth all started, but we must also grasp the new opportunities
that globalisation presents us. We must ensure continued growth in sectors
such as communications, high technology, financial services and retailing.
The UK and the Midlands with its strong financial and professional
services sector, its world-class science and engineering base and its
strong retailing sector is well placed to benefit from globalisation. The
West Midlands has the fastest growing service sector outside London, and
the East Midlands is the home of the hugely successful Capital One which
now employs around 2000 people.
A significant number of Midlands businesses are
already bringing new high value added products and services to market, and
are technological leaders in their field. Companies like EPM, the worlds’
leader in lightweight composite body shells, who last week announced they
were to set up on the North Works of the former MG Rover site at
Longbridge; or Biocomposites, who develop and manufacture synthetic
calcium carbonate devices for human tissue regeneration from their site in
North Staffordshire.
Environmental technologies developed in the UK are
already being used to address the widespread environmental damage caused
by China’s rapid industrialisation and we are also amongst the best mine
safety experts in the world - a very good example of how we can take our
experience in traditional industries and turn it to our advantage in new
territories. The UK is also forging ahead in areas like nanotechnology,
biosciences and electronics through research and development projects that
can be commercialised to have a worldwide impact.
Of course, Government has an important role to
play too, in establishing the climate, the conditions and the framework
within which business can flourish. We in government are rightly held
accountable for the economy and we are proud that we have developed
macroeconomic stability, with long term interest rates around their lowest
since the 1960s; the longest ever sustained growth in GDP and the longest
period of sustained low inflation for 40 years. We will strive to maintain
that stability which is so vital to business.
Next week is Enterprise Week, which is
wholeheartedly supported by Government. For any of you who haven’t heard
of this, it is a national celebration of enterprise with hundreds of
events and activities across the UK. It is the focal point of the ‘Make
Your Mark’ campaign, which aims to kick-start an enterprise culture among
the UK’s young people.
At the heart of Enterprise Week is the message
that enterprise is about having ideas and making them happen. It is a
message that the Government believes in and wants to share with young
people. That is why Government is a key supporter and main funder of the
‘Make Your Mark’ campaign.
Last year, 158,000 people attended 1,172
Enterprise Week events run by 481 organisations across the whole of the
UK. It was a huge success and I am sure it will be this year too.
Skills are a key issue for the Midlands. Employers
rightly want a real choice over the training provided and a greater voice
in shaping its supply. The best performing companies fully use the skills
and talents of their people to produce high quality, world-class products
and services. We need more people to develop their skills, to drive
forward the economy and enable individuals and employers to reach their
full potential.
To create a demand-led approach to skills and to
give regions the flexibility to tackle their own individual challenges,
the Government has identified Regional Skills Partnerships (RSPs) as a
major component of the national Skills Strategy. In the Midlands,
Advantage West Midlands and the East Midlands Development Agency are
leading on this and have created RSPs in both regions. These bring
together employers with suppliers of education and training, to align the
supply of skills with the current and future needs of employers,
individuals and the regional economy. It’s important that they deliver.
Our future success in the Midlands and nationally
depends on skills and on enterprise and entrepreneurship.
We need leaders. The successful continued
transition of business in the UK will require inspirational leadership and
management skills. Events like tonight’s, which recognises the
achievements of Young Directors, are especially important in demonstrating
the value and importance that we place on the skills, vision and
leadership of people like yourselves. The future prosperity of the region
and the nation depends on you and those like you across the country. I
congratulate you on your successes to date and wish you all even greater
success in the future.
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