Transport
culture and local business practices is obviously a key aspect and what you’d want to see in an ideal market in transparency. Obviously UK companies are governed by the bribery act which is a very positive thing. If you’re working with a UK company you will know that company is dealing in a transparent and honest manner. Many projects involve large consortia. How do they come together and how do British companies get involved in some of these consortias to create these larger projects?
Some companies may have already worked together so they will form a consortium or they will take the lead, probably the main contractor, and then seek to find business partners to join the consortia. How important is UKEF [UK Export Finance] in perspective of getting UK companies involved in rail projects?
It’s an important government department and the word needs to get out more that their services are
global-opportunity.co.uk
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Railway Industry Association
available. We want to encourage rail companies to take up more of their offers as they are very keen to work with rail companies and do more. How do smaller companies become involved in overseas projects?
The traditional route is by having a local agent or partner, or by working with tier 1 suppliers. The other way is to visit the market and talk to the Authorities . A lot of SMEs tend to have innovative products that are appealing so sometimes you need to go and visit the market and build that relationship. RIA as a UKTI Trade Challenge Partner runs trade missions. We’ve been involved in approximately 30 exporting events in the last 14 months. We also administer a grant scheme for UKTI called the Tradeshow Access Programme, which helps SMEs visit trade fairs. For example, we are taking a pavilion at Middle East Rail next March with 40 companies, and have 20 grants available worth £2,500 for an SME. We will also have 2 or 3 pavilions at InnoTrans which
Issue 02
| Global Opportunity 2015
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