Hot destinations for UK businesses
18 February 2010
A new report by Leeds University Business School, commissioned by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), has ranked the 52 countries offering the best opportunities for British companies before and after the ‘credit crunch’.
A revolution in the way Britain trades and invests with the world is looming, with Eastern Europe and Asia set to become better places for British companies to make money than Western Europe, according to the report.
The report says that,0 between 2005 and 2007, the countries offering the best opportunities were mostly Britain’s long-established trading partners: United States (1); Germany (2); France (3); Ireland (4); the Netherlands (5); Belgium (6); Spain (7); Italy (8); China (9) and Japan (10).
Five years later, the economic powerhouses of China, India and the US remain dominant, but beyond them the landscape is transformed, with the top ten countries increasingly dominated by the emerging economies of Eastern Europe, the Far East and Africa.
Between 2012 and 2014, the top ten is predicted to be: China (1); US (2); India (3); Libya (4); Ukraine (5); Russia (6); Romania (7); Korea (8); Mexico (9) and Singapore (10).
Just one western European country - Sweden - makes it into the top 20, while many of the UK’s biggest trading partners in the West slip dramatically; Germany (30); France (34); Ireland (42); the Netherlands (37); Belgium (44); Spain (47) and Italy (46).
The results highlight the shift occurring in the global economy, as the economies of countries where UK companies have not been represented so strongly begin to grow more rapidly.
Minister for Trade, Investment and Small Business Lord Davies said: “The patterns of trade are changing around the world and British businesses are having to adapt. I have visited numerous UK firms, many of them SMEs, that have seen their businesses transformed by exporting."
He added: “The starting point for success is to take an informed, strategic and long-term view about where the opportunities lie. This is where UK Trade & Investment, with its network that covers all of these markets, can make the difference.”