Meeting demand to buy UK exports abroad

The UK has long been a trad­ing nation and for cen­turies we have intro­duced our cre­ativ­i­ty, craft and com­modi­ties to the fur­thest shores. Today, UK brands and the UK’s lead­er­ship in qual­i­ty of design and tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion are in greater inter­na­tion­al demand than ever before.

But too many UK com­pa­nies are yet to grasp the world of oppor­tu­ni­ties that await, either by tak­ing their first for­ay into export­ing, or enter­ing new over­seas mar­kets.

Inter­na­tion­al trade is cen­tral to secure and sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth. There should not be a UK-based busi­ness who does not export to their poten­tial should they wish to do so. To enable this, gov­ern­ment is mobil­is­ing all its depart­ments behind the export dri­ve and work­ing with busi­ness­es to realise the ben­e­fits of inter­na­tion­al trade.

100,000 more exporters

In Novem­ber, we will launch Export­ing is GREAT, an ambi­tious cam­paign to inspire a new gen­er­a­tion of busi­ness­es to sell their goods and ser­vices around the world. The cam­paign will present real-time export­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that busi­ness­es can apply for imme­di­ate­ly; pro­vide advice and exper­tise through a year-long road show; and build the country’s largest busi­ness peer-to-peer advice net­work. This cam­paign will serve to sup­port the government’s objec­tive of 100,000 addi­tion­al exporters by 2020.

Gov­ern­ment is mobil­is­ing all its depart­ments behind the export dri­ve and work­ing with busi­ness­es to realise the ben­e­fits of inter­na­tion­al trade

We offer a range of sup­port to enable com­pa­nies to suc­ceed over­seas. UK Trade & Investment’s First Time Exporters ini­tia­tive pro­vides the oppor­tu­ni­ty for busi­ness­es to par­tic­i­pate in export insight vis­its to gain invalu­able under­stand­ing of sell­ing goods or ser­vices in inter­na­tion­al mar­kets. Our online tool Export Savvy pro­vides a short acces­si­ble mod­ule pro­gramme to get you start­ed on the export jour­ney whether you’re sit­ting at your desk or on your sofa.

Our oth­er ser­vices include expert guid­ance from a trade or finance advis­er; advice on inter­na­tion­al e‑commerce and online sell­ing; and sup­port to help con­nect UK com­pa­nies to poten­tial over­seas clients.

Supporting UK businesses

Our recent changes to the  Small Busi­ness, Enter­prise and Employ­ment Act allow greater flex­i­bil­i­ty in the export finance help we can offer UK exporters. Through UK Export Finance, the nation’s export cred­it agency, we are help­ing firms to alle­vi­ate the finan­cial risks of over­seas trade and to bridge their gaps in financ­ing, boost­ing export capac­i­ty.

With our pri­vate sec­tor part­ners, we give com­pa­nies invalu­able access to vital sup­port from local cham­bers, banks, lawyers, accoun­tants and con­sul­tants.

We use dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy to under­stand bet­ter the jour­ney of busi­ness­es to export and to trans­form our ser­vices to meet busi­ness needs. This includes mak­ing the path­way to gov­ern­ment export sup­port sim­pler, clear­er and faster, so that it bears com­par­i­son with the best exam­ples from dig­i­tal com­merce.

To ensure that gov­ern­ment is focus­ing our efforts on the areas where we can add most val­ue, we are work­ing hand in hand with busi­ness to trans­form the cur­rent export sup­port land­scape, includ­ing through our recent series of Export Jams.

On an inter­na­tion­al lev­el, we are call­ing for an open and trans­par­ent glob­al trade and invest­ment cul­ture, and the reduc­tion of red tape and reg­u­la­tion.

But gov­ern­ment can­not increase exports alone; busi­ness dri­ves eco­nom­ic growth. So we need your co-oper­a­tion to ensure we offer the UK ser­vices and prod­ucts that are so wide­ly in demand. It’s only by work­ing togeth­er that we can make progress towards achiev­ing our aim of dou­bling UK exports to a tril­lion pounds to increase eco­nom­ic growth.

The time has nev­er been bet­ter for UK com­pa­nies to suc­ceed over­seas. So I ask you to raise your inter­na­tion­al aspi­ra­tions and work with gov­ern­ment to seize the export oppor­tu­ni­ties that await you. My com­mit­ment to you, as your Min­is­ter for Trade and Invest­ment, is that gov­ern­ment will sup­port you on every step of the jour­ney.

The UK is open for busi­ness.