North West 37, Yorkshire 8 – the Government’s "Northern Powerhouse" mission to SE Asia

JUST eight Yorkshire organisations – including a Malaysian IT company and an East Midlands small business – are part of a Northern Powerhouse trade mission to south-east Asia being led by business secretary Sajid Javid.

The trip brings together 62 organisations, and Mr Javid said it “will demonstrate the strength of the northern regions”. Prime Minister David Cameron broke off from his own trade trip to the region to join up with the Northern Powerhouse trip in Singapore yesterday.

The North West is represented by 37 organisations, dwarfing the representation for Yorkshire and the Humber, which has just eight listed.

But they include Concept Smoke Screen, whose East Midlands factory sits almost exactly halfway between Sheffield and Norwich, and Fusionex, a Malaysian software company with a Sheffield operation which is listed on the London stock exchange but declares its results in Malaysian Ringgit.

The remaining businesses are Wetherby-based Pitman Training, the University of Sheffield and South Yorkshire solicitors Wosskow Brown, Leeds City Council, West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, and Leeds-based construction giant Turner & Townsend, which has 4,100 staff across 90 countries and opened its offices in Malaysia and Singapore in the 1990s.

Mr Javid said: “Our long-term economic plan seeks to rebalance growth across the regions and nations of the UK, and building a Northern Powerhouse will be a key part of this. This mission – the first of its kind – will demonstrate the strength of the northern regions, which are home to some of the most innovative companies and institutions in the world.”