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Export Week to help firms target high growth markets
Lord Green will this week launch a series of events up and down the UK to promote business abroad.
Export Week, between 13th -17th May, is a nationwide, week-long, series of events with the theme of high growth markets.
Launched by the Prime Minister in November 2011, Export Week is an initiative to boost the number of small businesses that export. The government has set a national target of getting 100,000 more British SMEs exporting over the next 5 years.
Export Week is a major component of the National Challenge and is part of a concerted campaign led by Lord Green to increase the number of British companies who export, from current levels of around 20 per cent to 25 per cent or more. By increasing the number of companies who export by roughly a quarter, about £36 billion could be added to the UK economy.
Trade & Investment Minister Lord Green said:
Companies of all sizes are increasingly winning business abroad proving that exporting is not just for the large firms.
Research conclusively shows businesses that export become more innovative, more productive and achieve a level of growth that would not otherwise be possible.
Our future prosperity rests on UK companies doing business abroad. I hope that Export Week will encourage companies not already doing so to think about trading abroad.
Events throughout the week will include seminars on high value opportunities in these markets, international finance and trade workshops, training on international marketing and utilising websites, targeted market days and much more.
Ambassadors from many of the high growth markets around the world will be available at a number of the events to personally advise on and explain the benefits of doing business in their markets. They will be joined by experienced businesspeople who are already trading abroad.
UKTI trade advisors will be on hand to advise both inexperienced and experienced exporters on how to get started and expand into High Growth Markets. Experienced exporters will also be available to relate how international trade helped their businesses become more profitable.