RES Assessment Report final:Layout 1
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INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS (RES ACTIONS 17-19) Progress Recent data relates to the 07/08 business year, a highly successful record year of performance for foreign direct investment, confirming our performance as the best location in the UK for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outside of London and the South East. Recent programmes have delivered target achievements, including trade business programmes by UKTI; by the North of England team in North America; and by the NWDA, working via UKTI, in China and India. We particularly welcome the fact that the good performance on FDI has been assisted by strong participation from sub-regional partnerships. In providing business support to exporters, UKTI and the region’s sector teams have successfully delivered the 2008/09 trade plan, assisting 600 companies to enter new markets. Data FDI targets have been met, with over 150 investment projects in the last year of data and 14,000 jobs created/safeguarded. An above target percentage of these FDI projects were R&D intensive, and the same percentage (13%) as last year was sourced from emerging markets. Implications This area of activity carries a medium/high risk over the next year, with deep recession at home and in key markets, and the OECD predicting severe falls in FDI work throughout 2009. Making products and services that sell effectively to the outside world, and being a region that attracts investment and relocations, is a vital part of our ability to obtain value from increasing globalisation, improve the structure of our economy, and retain jobs, security and quality of life in our region. Export-led growth, maintaining the competitiveness of the Northwest, and continuing to attract investment, must remain strategic priorities. Despite the risk factors, delivery has been good and we could potentially consider a stretch target for FDI within this RES factor this year.
ICT (RES ACTIONS 20-22) Progress It is difficult to report progress in this RES factor in the Northwest, although an ÂŁ8 million transformational ICT programme for companies is in concept stage at Lancaster University, potentially to be rolled out at the end of 2009. BT is committed to increasing activity in the Northwest, specifically to supplying a super-fast broadband service to 140,000 businesses and homes in and around Greater Manchester. Data No data updates are available this year. Implications A fast-moving area of national policy, where determining our ability to supply Next Generation Access, and our position in the context of the Digital Britain report, has become paramount. ICT support is now part of the Business Link Northwest offering and delivered in the mainstream, but we are not yet providing a transformational programme of support to targeted companies, and we will need to focus on achieving this. We suffer from the absence of data indicators relating to ICT usage, preventing us from monitoring progress and our relative position in this important contribution to productivity.
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RES Assessment Report 2009