Andrew Palmer: Export with innovation, dynamism and plain hard graft

this year, the Government’s primary duty to UK plc must be to establish economic stability after what has been yet another challenging year for the region’s businesses. What we need now are sound policies and strong business leadership to boost private-sector growth, and the CBI will be leading the charge at both a national and regional level.

Many of us in the business community have been reflecting on what is needed to ensure we get a sustained and strong recovery in the economy.

One of the key mid-term drivers of economic growth is exports. In the past, some companies may have been deterred by the cost of doing business abroad, but current exchange rates are making the UK much more competitive than it has been in the past decade. Now is the time for companies to put in place exporting strategies and exploit new markets.

Sir Richard Lambert, the CBI’s former director-general, recently joined the Prime Minister’s trade delegation to China, and it highlighted both the opportunities and the challenges.

In 2009, the UK imported goods worth £22.8bn from China and it became the third largest source of our imports. Disappointingly, we exported only £7.7bn of our products and services to China in the same period, so there is considerable scope to do much more. With John Cridland taking over at the helm of the CBI at this critical time for the economy, businesses in the region can be confident that we will be working to create high-quality, workable solutions that promote competition and allow all businesses, both new and established, to thrive and prosper, serve their customers and create jobs.

How is this going to be achieved? The same way businesses here in Yorkshire do it day-in-day-out – through a combination of innovation, dynamism and plain hard graft.