12th April 2011
I recently wrote about the centre of Kyiv turning British. So it’s good to find the centre of Oxford turning Ukrainian. The occasion is the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Programme Oxford Model Ukraine Conference “Ukraine’s Domestic and Foreign Affairs: Quo Vadis” (“where are you going”), held in St Anthony’s College and New College, Oxford from 6-8 April. […]
6th April 2011
Romania and the UK find themselves in similar economic circumstances. We are emerging from the economic crisis, we have had to bear down hard on public spending, and we need to find new sources of growth to sustain our economies in the decade ahead. This is true for many countries in Europe. And the need […]
30th March 2011
I’ve been in Warsaw this week meeting Polish and British colleagues and having my first good look around the city since I first visited it in 1987. It’s always interesting to compare neighbours, and the comparison between Poland and Ukraine tells us a good bit about both. This is particularly relevant as the negotiations on the proposed […]
Read more on Why should Ukraine integrate with Europe? | Reply
21st February 2011
On 14 February, Valentine’s Day, there was the launch in London of the very first Fairmined and Fairtrade gold ingot from artisanal and small-scale mining. This was mined at the Cooperativa Minera Cotapata in the Nor Yungas area of La Paz. To receive this certification, the mine had to comply with a number of conditions. […]
10th February 2011
I wrote recently in the Bolivian newspaper La Razon about the importance of free trade and the Doha Round of trade negotiations. As Prime Minister David Cameron has said, 2011 is a “make or break” year: we go forward, boosting free trade and global prosperity, or backwards to the dark ages of protectionism and beggar-thy-neighbour. […]
Read more on Trade and Investment: the case for open markets | Reply
9th February 2011
Today the British Government launches its Trade and Investment White Paper. This is our statement to our trade and investment partners across the world, including Hungary, about how we plan to work together for mutual benefit. It’s about: Maximising the opportunities for businesses in the UK to trade and invest, and attracting investment to the […]
2nd February 2011
As governments around the world continue to look for the best way to stimulate sustainable economic recovery, we in the trade policy field offer a simple answer: trade is the biggest stimulus we can give right now. And thanks to the trade liberalisation we’ve witnessed since the last big, multilateral trade agreement was reached in […]
Read more on Getting a Doha agreement: no time to lose | Reply
17th December 2010
When the Lord Mayor of London visited Kyiv in September 2009 he drew attention to the immense expertise of British financial institutions in developing Public Private Partnership or PPP. This is an arrangement where a private organisation assumes the risk of financing and building anything from a bridge to a hospital on the basis of […]
11th November 2010
The global economic crisis, beginning in the global financial sector in 2008 and subsequently spreading across other economic sectors, has forced dramatic structural economic changes in the United Kingdom. Many countries remain depressed by the slow recovery of global demand, and the caution of companies and consumers. It does appear, though, that the United Kingdom […]
11th November 2010
A civil nuclear energy company, an organisation to strengthen financial accounting standards, a software producer for CadCam and a world-renowned string quartet have been among the visitors promoting and enhancing British interests in Mumbai and nearby Pune in October. First off the block was The Chartered Institute of Management Accounting ( CIMA), whose chief executive […]
Read more on Nuclear waster, Beethoven, Cadcam and financial accounting – two weeks in Western India | Reply