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Nigel Griffiths MPEuropean Forum on Top Class Business Services |
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First Minister and distinguished guests. It is a great pleasure to be here in Cardiff today at a European conference on a topic which affects the prosperity of us all. And it's a special pleasure to pay tribute to a giant of the European political landscape, a great internationalist, Vice President Neil Kinnock. This is a timely conference. Last year's Lisbon Summit set clear goals for the European Union to strengthen employment, promote economic reform and foster social cohesion. It recognised that these goals can only be achieved by revitalising the EU climate for innovation and entrepreneurship. The new European Charter for Small Companies is a landmark. It commits Member States and the Commission to focus on small companies as the main engines for job creation in Europe. No-one needs to tell me the benefits of Pan-European co-operation. Here in Wales, we know the value of SMEs - and of the vital contribution of pan-European cooperation. £1.2bn has been committed to more than 350 projects revitalising some of the poorest areas of Wales. Projects like the small business support scheme Torfaen are getting a £467,000 grant and Gwynedd a separate £760,000 grant. And £6.3m is going to support tourism schemes like the Wales Tourist Board. And grants from £10,000 to £10m are making a difference in local communities across Wales, creating new businesses, helping 6,500 small companies expand, giving workers the latest skills supporting 20,000 jobs here. EU funds are assisting over 1,700 community groups contribute to economic regeneration. They're helping over 126,000 people who were unemployed get into the labour market. And in rural Wales, more than 800 small companies are being helped to grow and prosper. The EC's Fifth Framework Programme And I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all the help you've enabled us to give our SMEs under the Fifth Framework Programme. Our SMEs have submitted more successful exploratory awards than the SMEs from any other EU state - 278 successful proposals - a 60% success rate - worth over 100m Euro. In the 20th century, large corporations were the engines of growth. In this century, SMEs are the powerhouse for prosperity. Here in Britain, we have 3.4m SMEs employing 12m people and contributing £1 trillion a year to our economy. And in Europe, there are 20m SMEs employing 77m people and contributing a 10 trillion Euros a year to our economy - a staggering sum. We must tap into the talents in every country of our Union, and in every region and in every community. Every EU citizen, from every race, every class, every age regardless of ability or disability must reach their full potential. We cannot afford to waste the talents of all our people. Many UK SMEs, like other sectors are particularly vulnerable to exchange rates. That is why it is in the interest of British exporters for Britain to join the European single currency - when our economic conditions are met. Look at the help we've had from the Commission to tackle social exclusion. The Multiannual Programme for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship is guaranteeing £18m of Prince's Trust loans over a two year period and the European Investment Fund is enabling us to provide "soft" loans to young would-be entrepreneurs who can't easily get help elsewhere. The European Charter for Small Enterprises, endorsed at the Feira Summit in June 2000, shows just how serious Europe is about building a world-class economy. But talk is cheap. The Charter pledges us at a European level:
The Charter aims to help create the best possible environment for small business and entrepreneurship. We have agreed jointly, the Multi-Annual Programme for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. This programme - under which this forum is organised - has a total budget over five years of 450m Euro. 317m Euro goes to capital assistance for SMEs in technology startups and guarantee facilities. Outside of the programme, additional risk capital funds bring the total available to SMEs to 550m euro. These funds can be accessed immediately. A five-year programme with five aims to grow world-class SMEs in our Union. This Cardiff Forum is part of a 'Best Procedure' on business support services. Today and tomorrow, we have the opportunity to identify and share good practice. Like all of you, I recognise the crucial importance of small firms in a dynamic economy. We have introduced a major change to the delivery of support to business through the creation of the Small Business Service:
None of this can be achieved without co-operating with our European partners to promote SMEs. That's why we opened an office last month in Brussels with the single task of promoting the SME agenda, funded by our SBS and employing Ben Butter as an independent advocate on behalf of SMEs. We call this office smallbusiness|Europe. It is already co-operating with the main SME representative bodies in the EU like British Chamber of Commerce, CBI, Forum of Private Business, Federation of Small Businesses and Institute of Directors. Let me be clear. Our vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business. That means world-class business support services delivered by 45 Business Links in England and similar offices in other nations of the UK. This is how we target core business support services - the theme delegates will be exploring in workshop one this afternoon. We are making it easier for people in business, and wanting to start a business to access advice through our hotline centre and website at www.businesslink.org. I don't have to tell you about the importance of workforce development. One of the workshop themes at this Forum covers Top Class Support Staff. We have a Learning and Skills Council to raise workplace skills. Workshop 3 today will give us an opportunity to explore good practice across the EU. Finally, can I alert you to our Government's the Think Small First initiative. This provides a framework within Government
We all need to Think Small First - every government following the principles of good regulation - proportionality, transparency, accountability, targeting and consistency. As we strive for truly top class business support services, we need to create a common language - and more importantly - a common understanding and approach. But this is much more than words. That is why I am so encouraged by today. I want today to be the start of a systematic effort to share best practice and ensure a consistent high quality approach covering all SMEs EU wide. MAP commits us to achieving the EU's goal of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. By working together we can make this a reality - with everyone sharing in a progressive prosperous, dynamic Europe. |
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Other speeches by Nigel Griffiths MP
(the following are available from the archive) |
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