Exclusive: Osborne To Boost UKTI Budget - Sky News (blog)

Mark Kleinman November 26, 2011 1:40 PM

I have learned that ministers will next week announce plans to boost the budget of Britain's main trade promotion agency by tens of millions of pounds in an effort to accelerate exports to the world's biggest emerging economies.

I am told by people close to the Treasury that the Chancellor's autumn statement will say that roughly £30m of new money has been earmarked for UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) in an effort to help 500 mid-sized companies export more effectively.

George Osborne will also say that the focus of UKTI's work will also shift from Europe and the US to high-growth markets such as China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The new money will be a welcome boost to UKTI and to Lord Green, the former HSBC chairman who joined the Government just under a year ago as minister for trade and investment.

It will also represent an effort by ministers to address criticisms that the Government has done too little to boost trade with faster-growing, high population markets in the Far East. At the CBI annual conference on Monday, David Cameron again trotted out the statistic that Britain exports more to Ireland than it does to the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) combined.

The focus by UKTI on 500 mid-sized companies will effectively be an attempt to pick winners among British businesses which produce goods and services for which there is a demand in these important emerging export markets.

UKTI was unavailable for comment while the Treasury declined to comment.