120 prospects on Birmingham hit list

SOME 120 prospect companies are being targeted by Birmingham inward investment chiefs and the search for new business blood is being widened to take in China and Japan.

It was announced today that around 200 jobs a month are being created in the city with nearly 1,800 new positions announced since Business Birmingham, the city’s inward investment programme, was launched in April.

Business Birmingham, which operates under the umbrella of Marketing Birmingham, has seen the biggest gains in transport and financial services with nearly 40% of jobs created in financial services and more than 20 per cent in transport technologies.

Wouter Schuitemaker, the organisation’s investment director, said: “To generate investment and jobs, we have focused on raising the profile of Birmingham, and its sectoral strengths, on a global scale.

“We have exceeded our overall job creation target by 42% so far, generating 1,777 jobs against an original target of 1,250 until April 2012.

“This has in a large part been driven by strong performances in financial services and in automotive, where we have surpassed our targets considerably.

“With investment from organisations including the Business Growth Fund, Trowers & Hamlins and FIS Global, and more in the pipeline, it is a trend we anticipate continuing into 2012.        

“As we move into 2012, we will continue to build on these strengths but also focus more strongly on life sciences and digital media.

“Due to our recent success Business Birmingham is also extending our target audience to ten markets from four, including China, Japan, Australia and Switzerland, based on higher than expected levels of interest from these markets.”

Some 120 inward investment prospects are in the pipeline for Business Birmingham – of which nearly two thirds (65%) are in financial and business services, digital media, manufacturing and transport technologies.

Commenting on the inward investment figures, Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham, said: “We are really pleased, not just because of the climate but because it’s from a standing start.

“I don’t think we could have done a lot more in a 12-month period.”