§ Lord Haskelasked Her Majesty's Government:
What further proposals they have to promote exports from the United Kingdom by small and medium sized enterprises.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Strathclyde)In addition to policies to improve the climate for business, such as the deregulation initiative, we have taken a number of steps to improve the already excellent services the Government offer businesses of any size wishing to export.
Under a newly created post of Director General of Export Promotion, we have set up two new divisions concentrating soley on export promotion work. They will have up to 60 extra staff to allow individual coverage of the UK's top 80 export markets. We are also recruiting 100 men and women from the private sector on secondment to bring their skills and experience to assist these divisions in their export promotion work. Under the Overseas Projects Board, we are establishing sector task forces chaired by senior business people to 122WA co-ordinate our efforts to secure the business that flows from major overseas projects. The Government have also made available to UK exporters more than £2 billion of additional export credit cover for key markets over the next three years, and ECGD has reduced its premium rates by an average of more than 25 per cent. over the last year.
These initiatives will build substantially on the current matrix of support available to help our exporters under the joint DTI and FCO Overseas Trade Services operation worldwide, to ensure that even greater numbers of UK exporters get the first class support they deserve to help them win in world markets.