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24 May 2004

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, GORDON BROWN MP, AT THE UK-US ENTERPRISE FORUM, NEW YORK

I would like to talk this morning about why a culture of enterprise is crucial for advanced industrial economies like Britain and the US to meet the challenges of the global economy, and what we can do to foster that enterprise culture. 

In this new century, the nations that will succeed amidst ever more intensive global competition, not least from a rising China and India, will be those that are sufficiently confident and forward looking to entrench stability, celebrate enterprise, make long-term investments in science and skills and be outward looking rather than protectionist.

And as the United States continues to lead the way in the recovery of the world economy, and Britain continues to provide a model of stable growth, this is a moment of opportunity. Building on Britain’s and America’s great strengths – our tradition of scientific inventiveness longer than any other, and our traditions of enterprise and creativity – now is the right time for us both to remove all unnecessary barriers to wealth creation and create the conditions for step change in our enterprise culture on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the UK today we are seeing 3,000 new businesses starting up each week – and small and medium enterprises provide jobs for over 12 million people.  There are 100,000 more businesses than in 1997, and in 2003 we saw the fastest rate of increase in self-employment since the late 1980s. 

And I believe we are starting to build for a new world upon our great entrepreneurial traditions. We still know that Britain can learn from America’s model of enterprise – compared with Britain, Americans are almost twice as likely to be involved in starting up a new business and Britain would have 1.8 million more businessmen and women if we had the same proportion of people starting a business as the United States.

So I want to do more in Britain to encourage the risk takers, those with ambition, to turn their ideas into reality and make the most of their talents.

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Since 1997 our Government has made tough choices to foster entrepreneurship, despite many other priorities such as healthcare and education, because we wanted to send a strong message in support of enterprise:

  • we cut capital gains tax from 40 pence down to 10 pence;
  • we cut corporation tax from 33 pence to 30 pence and for small companies from 23 pence to 19 pence;
  • we changed insolvency laws to reduce the risk of failure;
  • and we introduced new competition policies and tackled market abuses.

And Britain is now ready for the next round of enterprise reforms and a step change in creating a more dynamic enterprise culture:

  •  new incentives and services to help businesses start up and grow;
  • strengthening our 2000 enterprise areas;
  • a 10 year framework for science and innovation, to be announced in the next few weeks, funding better links between universities and enterprise;
  • British and European competitions to find the town or city of enterprise;
  • the opportunity for all pupils before they leave school to enjoy not just work experience but enterprise education too;
  • a new National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurs;
  • and driving forward national awareness of enterprise opportunities for all with  the first ever national Enterprise Week - focused on inspiring the young to be enterprising - in November.

And having already learned from US initiatives with the Small Business Service modelled on the US Small Business Administration, we are now:

  • creating a new Enterprise Capital Funds programme to improve access to finance for small firms, building on the US experience with Small Business Investment Companies;
  • and introducing the City Growth Strategies initiative for business-led economic regeneration in deprived urban areas, building on the Initiative for the Competitive Inner City in the United States. 

We know how much stronger our economy and our society will be if we see released all the dynamism, creativity and potential of all our people. So we now want to see a dynamic business culture which makes people feel that enterprise is not for an elite but potentially for them too.

Underpinning all of our reforms is our belief that a culture of enterprise will only flourish if men and women from Britain’s high, as well as low, unemployment communities - and from all social backgrounds - have confidence that they can transform their ideas and hopes into business start ups and growing firms — and thus build an enterprise culture genuinely open to all. 

So I would like to hear from everyone round the table your views, from your experience, on what the next stage of our policy for promoting a more dynamic enterprise culture should be and what both business and government can do to inspire the entrepreneurs of the future and enable them to turn their ideas into business success.

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