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snapshot of our work
A snapshot of our work
Supporting successful business
Business success is the cornerstone of a thriving economy and
the DTI is the voice for business success in government. We
support successful business…
- Through our Business Relations team
- Building partnerships with business through face-to-face
communication, and tackling issues affecting specific sectors to
raise productivity and innovation
- Through e-business
- Helping companies in the effective implementation of e-business
technologies and ensuring that the £1 billion the Government will
spend by 2006 on broadband connections has the maximum possible
impact on overall availability
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"The work of the Manufacturing Advisory
Service is proving its value many times over with companies eager to improve their competitive
position - if we can build a culture where such activity
is the norm, then we will be well on the way to creating a
sustainable future for manufacturing."
David Seall, Chief
Executive of the Engineering Employers' Federation South
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- Through support for manufacturing
- We have published a Manufacturing Strategy and launched the
Manufacturing Advisory Service, which has helped nearly 1,200
companies to increase their value added by an average of £105,000
and has provided an actual total added value to UK manufacturers
approaching £38 million
- Through support for small and medium enterprises
- Investing around £500m a year through the work of the Small
Business Service and Business Link, to help SMEs (including
social enterprises) start up and grow. Over the last 12 months
alone Business Link has helped over 300,000 businesses take
the next step
- By carefully targeting business support
- Transforming our business support - reducing the number of
products from over 100 to just ten, making them clearer and more
customer-focused than ever before
- By export and inward investment
- Through UK Trade & Investment (with the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office) which helps thousands of companies every year
by supporting overseas sales and high quality, direct inward
investment
- By working with the regions
- In partnership with RDAs and GOs, ensuring national and regional
policies work together to support business - especially in the
areas of enterprise, innovation and skills
- Strengthening economies by improving the trend growth rate in
all UK regions and reducing the gap between the regions' growth
rates
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DTI has worked with the Department for Education and Skills to
produce a Skills Strategy that will raise productivity through
higher skills, knowledge and expertise.
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- By tackling inequalities
- Supporting entrepreneurship in disadvantaged areas, by minority
ethnic communities and women
- By shaping policy
- Working across Whitehall and in Brussels to make sure the voice
of business is heard on key issues - e.g. planning, transport,
pensions, skills and regulation
Promoting world-class science and innovation
Innovation (the successful exploitation of ideas) is a vital
part of economic growth and development in modern advanced
economies. It is a key area to which we are moving resource as
part of the DTI Strategy and Business Plan. The Innovation Report
(published December
2003) identifies areas of relative UK underperformance and sets
out clear proposals and an action plan to achieve the Prime
Minister's vision of the UK as a key knowledge hub in the global
economy. We are working with stakeholders to boost the
exploitation of ideas and knowledge by business and others…
- Through the Office of Science and Technology (OST)
- Leading on behalf of Government in excellent science,
engineering and technology and their use to benefit society and
the economy and supporting the Government's Chief Scientific
Adviser
- Through our Innovation Group
- Working with OST, other DTI Groups, business and the scientific
community to turn scientific excellence into improved performance
and higher productivity. The Group provides a focus for driving
forward the innovation agenda across Government
- Through investment in research
- In the 2003/04 financial year, the OST is investing £2.4
billion in UK research - including research training and careers,
research equipment, laboratories and large facilities - increasing
to £3 billion by 2005/06
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"Our goal is prosperity for all through successful businesses
using excellent science"
Rt Hon Tony Blair, MP
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- And by investing in knowledge transfer
- Through the £187 million Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF)
and other support for knowledge transfer, we are actively
supporting the exchange of people and ideas between the research
base and users, including the "spin out" and licensing
activities of universities and public sector research
establishments
Ensuring Fair Markets
The UK needs markets that are open and dynamic. Open markets
promote innovation and productivity. The DTI promotes fair markets…
- In Europe and the world
- We are leading the debate for economic reform in Europe, where
we are pursuing EU-wide measures to enhance our competitiveness,
and on the global stage we are pressing for free and fair world
trade, so that all nations will benefit from increased trade and
prosperity
- By encouraging confident consumers
- Ensuring consumers can be certain of fair treatment, know their
rights and
can exercise them effectively. We are developing a new telephone
and on-line advice service, Consumer Direct, being rolled out from
2004
- By modernising the competition framework
- So that merger decisions are independent, stronger penalties
discourage cartels and to develop a stronger consumer enforcement
framework - for
example through the Competition Act, Enterprise Act and EU
Modernisation
- By promoting confidence in capital markets
- Modernising company law and reforming corporate governance to
ensure that we have the best corporate framework in the world
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Major employment relations initiatives include the National
Minimum Wage, Working Time Regulations and Work-Life Balance
campaign. These are examples of how DTI works to provide employees
with decent minimum standards at work and to promote best practice
within organisations, for the benefit of both employers and
employees. We will also establish new rules to improve dialogue
between employers and employees following a framework agreement
between CBI and TUC.
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- By maximising potential in the workplace
- Working with employers and unions to promote more effective and
fair use of people's talents in the workplace and a skilled,
diverse and flexible labour market
- By promoting equality and diversity in the UK and
internationally
- Through the Women and Equality Unit
- Through energy policies and markets
- Our Energy Group works to ensure a successful economy is
underpinned by secure, sustainable and affordable energy. Our
Energy White Paper sets out how we will reduce CO2 emissions, with
the aim of producing 10% of electricity from renewable sources by
2010
Find out more
(Back to About DTI)
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