§ Mr. Michael Spicerasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) in view of the fact that the United Kingdom software industry has almost no experience of exporting software products and systems to Japan, what steps the National Enterprise Board proposes to take in order to ensure a reasonable chance of success;
(2) in view of the fact that the United Kingdom software industry has almost no experience of exporting software products and systems to the United States of America, what steps the National Enterprise Board proposes to take in order to ensure a reasonable chance of success.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldWithout accepting the implication of the first part of the Question, this is a matter for the NEB.
§ Mr. Michael Spicerasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) what controls and conditions the National Enterprise Board intends to impose on software companies with which development contracts have been placed to ensure that the public money is well spent;
(2) whether the National Enterprise Board plans to purchase a controlling interest or interests in one or more United States software houses in order to acquire a marketing outlet for products developed by Insac;
(3) whether the National Enterprise Board plans to purchase a controlling interest or interests in one or more Japanese software houses in order to acquire a marketing outlet for products developed by Insac;
(4) what is the expected rate of return on National Enterprise investments in the United Kingdom software industry in 1977–78, 1978–79 and 1979–80;
(5) what is the total budget of the National Enterprise Board for share acquisition, market development and technical development of the United Kingdom software industry in 1977–78, 1978–79 and 1979–80.
§ Mr. Les. HuckfieldThis is a matter for the NEB.
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§ Mr. Michael Spicerasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) how much money is available for any National Enterprise Board plan to purchase a controlling interest or interests in one or more Japanese software houses;
(2) how much money is available for any National Enterprise Board plan to purchase a controlling interest or interests in one or more United States software houses.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldThis is a matter for the NEB within the provisions made in the Government's Expenditure Plans, Volume II, Cmnd. 6721–II.
§ Mr. Michael Spicerasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether development contracts with the United Kingdom software companies aimed at developing products for the United States market may be placed with companies in which the National Enterprise Board does not have a shareholding.
§ Mr. Michael Spicerasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) how much money has been allocated to the National Enterprise Board in the years 1977–78, 1978–79 and 1979–80 for development contracts to be placed with United Kingdom software companies in order to develop products for the United States market;
(2) how much money has been allocated to the National Enterprise Board to purchase shares in software houses during the financial years 1977–78 and 1978–79;
(3) how much money has been allocated to the National Enterprise Board in the years 1977–78, 1978–79 and 1979–80 for development contracts to be placed with the United Kingdom software companies in order to develop products for the Japanese market.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldMoney is not allocated to the NEB in this way.