The government set the UK a target of doubling UK exports to £1tn by 2020 and in his 6th budget the Chancellor George Osborne pledged to better support UKTI, an organisation which provides finance and assistance for businesses engaging with international markets.
Earlier in March it was announced that more than 3,000 medium-sized businesses were exporting due to UKTI support.
In his address to the House of Commons, Osborne said: “Today I am again increasing UKTI’s resources to double the support for British exporters to China.”
Osborne added: “From the CBBC seminars and UKTI briefings that we attended and our own research we were certain that there was incredible scope for selling to the emerging Chinese consumer.
The CBBC is the trade delivery partner in China for UKTI. Between them, the two organisations help businesses build a contacts network, carry out research, attend trade fairs and missions, and promote goods and services in the Chinese market.
On the subject of British manufactures, and the growth being seen by the sector, Osborne added: “Britain’s manufacturing output has grown more than four-and-a-half times faster than it did in the entire decade before the crisis.” And over the last year, the North grew faster than the South, he says. “We are seeing a truly national recovery.”
Emma Jones, founder of small business network Enterprise Nation said: “Investing in global trade is great news and particularly China – today even home-based businesses can trade internationally via powerful platforms like alibaba.com and Etsy.com but all of this can be dramatically supercharged with helpful Government intervention, so we’d be interested to see what going to look like.
“We’re planning a trade mission to China for startup entrepreneurs later this year, so this might well have a direct impact on us.”
