Osborne launches supply chain initiative
CHANCELLOR George Osborne has announced a new initiative to help the development of Britain’s mid-sized businesses.
Speaking at the Daily Telegraph’s inaugural Festival of Business event in Manchester today, the Chancellor said that a group of blue-chip British firms including Tesco, Centrica, Virgin, Glaxo Smithkline, Network Rail and BAE Systems have already signed up to the initiative to offer support, advice and development opportunities to companies within their supply chain.
“We hope that other large British firms will join this endeavour,” he said.
The initiative involves the larger businesses offering supply chain firms opportunities and advice on exports, the opportunity to shadow senior executives, gain access to training courses and even through collaborating on research projects and sharing intellectual property.
“It’s a simple idea – today’s successful firms helping you to grow into the big companies of tomorrow…It’s in their interest, it’s in your interest, and it’s in the interests of the UK economy,” he said.
Mr Osborne said that medium-sized companies often get overlooked by policymakers, but are “the real engine of growth for the economy”.
He also pledged that a package of measures would be introduced to support mid-sized businesses when he announces his autumn statement in November.
Mr Osborne is due in Poland this afternoon at a meeting of Euro-area finance ministers, which will for the first time also be attended by US treasury secretary Tim Geithner.
The chancellor admitted that Britain’s economic performance could not be isolated from the uncertainty in both the Euro and US markets, which remain the UK’s major trading partners.
He said the economic woes on both sides of the Atlantic have “the same root cause – excessive levels of debt around the world.
“What started as a debt crisis in the banking sector in 2008 has now turned into a wider crisis of sovereign, banking and private sector debt. Britain cannot blame the rest of the world for these debts, for we were one of the biggest contributors to them.”
