Lord Livingston’s Central European Diary – Day 4

Apart from being well-known for its science and innovaton centre, Brno’s got a GREAT racing circuit. The Czech Republic has got a GREAT and engineering heritage. Superb opportunity for Czech engineering companies to ge involved with our automotive sector supply chain. Automotive is booming in the UK. We’ve got a 4 billion gap in our supply chain. There‘s also an export opportunity here for Westfield Sports cars – road going ones and also race cars. It’s all about our countries doing business with each other and the automotive sector is a good place to start.

Day 4 of the GREAT Megamission and the team powers out of Brno and onto Bratislava. Passing a couple of Tesco’s en route you begin to realise the massive scope of the retail opportunity out here. Nearly 1200 stores – Tesco a GREAT british company championing modern retail. Tesco a GREAT partner for UK companies looking to export into this esciting region – a region which thirsts for added value and quality, where the British brand is known but not present. A flood of opportunity the question is where to start.

A 90 minute run to the capital of Slovakia makes us realise how well networked the region is and just how easy it is for UK companies to look at this region as one target for exports. Easy to get out here and easy to get around here and easy to export here. A quick pitstop before an enlightening discussion with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and a networking lunch with the trade mission. Down to Business. There’s a buzz about this place, an ambition to do business.

The lunch provides Lord Livingston with the opportunity to get down to business with the companies on the trade mission – growth that’s what this mission is all about:

„I can clearly see the fast growing markets of Central and Eastern Europe are a real opportunity for the British economy. In recent years our exports of goods and services to these countries have more than doubled, but overall, our representation compared to other Western European countries is much smaller,“ enthused Lord Livingston.

Lord Livingston bumps into Proseal from the North West of the UK – he visited them recently. GREAT to see them on the mission. Proseal is just the type of company which can do good business out here – an innovative manufacturer in the food and drink sector.

A good number of companies on the mission are from the from the areas as energy, transport infrastructure, health, IT, food industry, natural sciences, wholesale and security.

„These are all sectors of the Central and Eastern Europe in which we expect a particularly strong growth and in which the British companies are world leaders. Our objective is to increase the number of companies exporting to this region tenfold by 2020. And this could only be achieved when we grab at the greatest opportunities,“ added Lord Livingston.

During his visit to Bratislava, the Minister Livingston opened the new British Slovak Business Centre – centre which will offer a wide range of services for small and medium sized businessmen from Great Britain.

The trade teams and business centres are playing a transformational role in helping getting UK companies started out here and developing a local market business development agenda; they are a magnate which attracts our products to opportunity out here. They are a key which unlocks potential and supports concrete business growth. GREAT to see the Minister focused on the opportunities in hand and supporting the companies start on their growth journey in this exciting region.

The four countries of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, along with five others in the Central European Network (Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia and Croatia), have a combined population of over 100 million people, a combined GDP in excess of £1 trillion and annual average growth rates that in recent years have far exceeded most other European countries.

These countries also have low levels of public debt compared with the Eurozone average and the region is about to benefit from £124 billion of EU funding between 2014 and 2020, enhancing investment prospects in infrastructure, energy and innovation.