Fox launching Northern Powerhouse International Week
International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox is today launching Northern Powerhouse International Week, kick-starting five days of activity shining a light on enterprise, innovation and global connectivity.
The Department for International Trade claims to have helped secure exports worth more than £58bn in the year to September, 2017 from companies based in the North and helped to attract foreign investment, creating 15,000 new jobs in the year 2016 to 2017.
Fox said: “My international economic department will continue to help build on the strengths of the north – providing support to businesses throughout their export journey and working hard to attract even more foreign investment into the Northern Powerhouse.”
The Week will see three separate trade missions of northern businesses, 49 in total, to India and the UAE.
The will also be a large delegation of international TV executives attending the BBC Worldwide Showcase in Liverpool until Wednesday (February 21), with some 700 buyers viewing thousands of hours of content in specially constructed digi booths.
The Northern Powerhouse Export Awards 2018 taking place on Thursday (February 22O bringing together exporters from across the Northern Powerhouse to celebrate their export achievements and inspire others from the region to export around the world.
During the week, northern companies will travel to Gulfood in Dubai, the world’s largest food trade show, to demonstrate the North’s food and drink sector where exports reached £3bn in the year to September, 2017.
Pharmaceutical businesses will also be heading on a life sciences mission to India, and a tech delegation will visit Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore – known as the Silicon Valley of India with its global technology hub.
In each of these three trade missions DIT expects the companies to sign deals and achieve export wins, it said.
