Chamber News

Norfolk Chamber members are calling for the Chancellor to take rapid and radical steps to shift government spending from unproductive areas and towards growth measures that can be delivered quickly.

Caroline Williams CEO Norfolk Chamber of Commerce said: “It is imperative that infrastructure delivery must become a top priority across government. With the utilities and developers both waiting for each other to take the investment risk, it is essential that the government finds a way to unlock investment in infrastructure and get confidence back into the business community.”

Key Chamber priorities:

• Incentivise private-sector investment in infrastructure to support development of key infrastructure projects including road building and housing.
• Cuts in business taxation including NIC to be considered
• Introduce a firm timetable for the launch of a credible British Business Bank
• Freeze business rates for three years. Ministers must cancel the 2.6% rise scheduled for April
• Triple the lifetime limit for Entrepreneurs Relief on Capital Gains Tax from £10m to £30m which would encourage businesses who want to expand and reinvest their profits.
• Expand support for companies exporting to overseas markets to enable new and existing exporters to take advantage of new markets for their products and services.

Caroline Williams continued “These measures would all contribute to boosting confidence. Our own research shows that firms across Norfolk believe they can drive growth this year, but they can’t do it alone. Bold action must be taken now to boost confidence so that businesses can create wealth and prosperity. That means both delivering existing promises and taking radical action today, not tomorrow.”

Ian Hacon Vice President of Norfolk Chamber and MD Blue Sky Leisure said “I would say that a NIC holiday is great way to encourage jobs. On funding, despite poor performance on Funding For Lending(FFL) to continue with FFL and Small Firms Loan Guarantee scheme for foreseeable future would be important. We need to continue to work with banks to try ensure it is properly allocated to the right clients”

Norfolk Chamber Board member Jonathan Cage and Managing Director, Create Consulting Engineers Ltd said: “The most important thing that I would like to see is any measure which increases consumer confidence. I don’t necessarily believe that it is the lack of finance that is stopping people from making growth decisions. It is the confidence that there is actually a market out there for the additional products, goods and services if you expand. We have a large number of SMEs who I am sure would like to grow and have the skills and motivation to do so. They are however all concerned about pressing buttons.

Confidence is achieved by promoting positive messages and ensuring that a clear message and strategy is developed for long term economic stability. The government should not be drawn to any major radical changes where again we are not sure what the outcome will be. Instead it needs to give stability and certainty with mechanisms to reward businesses and companies who are prepared to give it a go.

What I think can be done without much money is to get a positive message being issued to the world that Britain is open for business, which has to be in every bodies interests. This is not the time for political squabbling.”

The Norfolk Chamber of Commerce has today received acknowledgement of their support for the Greater Norwich City Deal Bid. The letter from Greg Clark, HM Treasury, advised that Ministers were impressed with the potential of the Greater Norwich proposal to deliver local growth.

• UK trade deficit in goods and services was £2.4bn in January 2013, compared with a deficit of £2.8bn in December 2012
• Underlying export volumes were unchanged in the three months to January, while import volumes fell by 2% in the same period

The trade figures for January 2013 out today shows that Britain’s trade deficit is still too large despite the January figures being better than predicted. While the falling trade deficit in January may improve the prospects that GDP growth will be positive, it is too early to draw firm conclusions. We must take into account the poor construction figures, and the latest industrial production figures, which were disappointingly weak.

“More effective action is needed to ensure that the considerable untapped potential of many Norfolk exporters can be used to drive a sustainable recovery. The government must implement the measures it has already announced to support companies seeking to break into new markets. We clearly need a national export strategy that focuses on key areas such as trade finance, promotion, and insurance, and this would enable Norfolk companies to compete in the global arena and provide growth to the local economy.”

The discussion at the Great Yarmouth Chamber Council meeting last night centred around their forthcoming meeting with the Great Yarmouth Borough Council Cabinet on Wednesday 13 March 2013. The Great Yarmouth Chamber Council is keen to strengthen communications with the Borough Council Cabinet. They wish to highlight the need for both the Cabinet and local businesses to support young people and motivate the next generation of workers and also to understand the needs of the supply chain to help support future economic growth in Great Yarmouth.

John Morse, President of Great Yarmouth Chamber Council said “It is important that we maximise our efforts in providing plentiful opportunities to motivate, recruit, train and deploy succeeding generations across a wide variety of business sectors. Both the Chamber Council and the Cabinet have identified the skills challenge as a major initiative and we are delighted to have the opportunity to work together in order to have a coordinated response.”

The Middle East Association, in partnership with the Kurdistan Regional Government, will be leading a Trade Delegation to Iraqi Kurdistan from 28th April to 3rd May 2013, visiting Erbil and Duhok.

The mission will have a particular focus on:

• Healthcare
• Education
• Infrastructure
• Hydroelectric power generation
• Agriculture
• Water treatment

Each of these areas of interest will have a comprehensive sector-specific mission programme organised by the KRG.

For further information, please click here.

“Bridging the Gap – Exploring International and Canadian Supply Chain Solutions and Partnerships”.

A fantastic opportunity to network with key International companies and organisations.

This is an opportunity for companies in this emerging sector to consider International obstacles to the growth of UAS, but to do so in an area of Canada where the Government wants to look at attracting innovative companies to set-up R&D/production facilities at its emerging centre of excellence at Slemon Park.

Click here for further details.

The UK-Algeria Business Council and Enterprise Parliament are pleased to organise a multi-sector Trade Mission to Algeria, from 14-17 April 2013.

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent working and friendship visit to Algeria confirms the good political and economic relations between the two countries. The PM said that he had “excellent” discussions with President Bouteflika, adding that his visit to Algeria was the first of a British Prime Minister since 1962.

“We have agreed to forge a strategic partnership between our two countries,” he said, adding that an important part of its will be related to security, especially in defence, intelligence and fight against terrorism.

David Cameron also said that he discussed with the Head of State the economic relations between the two countries and hoped that the two sides will further strengthen them in the future. “We also talked about the necessity to strengthen English language teaching in Algeria,” he concluded.

To find out more about the mission, please click here.

Trade barriers between the EU and Peru were lifted on 1 March 2013, when the ambitious and comprehensive trade agreement concluded in 2012 was provisionally applied in the South American country.

The agreement will open up markets for exporters from both sides, eventually bringing annual savings of more than €500 million. However, it is the improved and more stable conditions for trade and investment that are expected to bring the biggest gains.

The deal includes far-reaching provisions on the protection of human rights and the rule of law, as well as commitments to effectively implement international conventions on labour rights and environmental protection.

The EU is Peru’s third largest source of imports (mainly machinery and transport equipment) and the main destination for its exports (mainly fuels and mining products).

The trade agreement represents an important opportunity for Peruvian agricultural and fisheries exports, which already represent almost a third of the country’s exports to the Union.

EU-Peru trade has grown significantly in recent years and its volume reached €9.2 billion in 2011, corresponding to 16% of Peru’s trade volume.

Colombia, which also signed the trade agreement with the EU in June 2012, is expected to join the implementation phase later this year, once its internal ratification procedures are completed.

Health and safety rules can seldom escape the accusation of bureaucracy, and those emanating from Brussels are especially likely to provoke suspicion and discontent in business circles.

So what is to be made of the latest proposals from the European Commission to improve workers’ protection against exposure to hazardous chemicals?

To some extent this is a tidying up exercise as the EU already has five directives in this area and what the Commission wants is to make sure that they all tally with its latest rules on the classification, labelling and packaging (CLP) of chemicals.

In practical terms this means that manufacturers and suppliers of chemical substances and mixtures will (if the proposal is adopted) have to provide harmonised labelling information on hazard classification, alerting the user to the presence of hazardous chemicals, the need to avoid exposure and any associated risks.

This will, the Commission argues, allow employers to put in place appropriate risk management measures to protect workers’ health and safety, such as process enclosure, ventilation systems and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

It emphasises that the proposals have already been the subject of two rounds of consultation with employer and trade union representatives at EU level (the social partners).

Existing EU chemical classification and labelling legislation will be repealed on 1 June 2015 when new rules come into force so expect this latest piece of “red tape” to be implemented at about the same time, assuming it is accepted by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

A new European Commission report highlights a selection of key barriers faced by EU companies and aims to raise awareness of the importance of addressing trade obstacles in such a way that they can fully reap the benefits of the global market.

The report is seen as underlining the Union’s market access strategy and as recognition of the calculation that 90% of global economic growth is expected to be generated outside the EU by 2015.

This third edition of the Trade and Investment Barriers Report (TIBR 2013) provides an account of the progress achieved on those barriers, identified in previous editions (2011 and 2012), that continue to be of concern to EU exporters and could not be fully solved to date.

It also highlights a number of new barriers that appeared in 2012 and require concerted action and political prioritisation both by the Commission and by the Member States in certain key markets.

As in the 2012 edition, this report focuses on market access barriers in some of the EU’s strategic partners (China, India, Japan, Brazil, Russia and the USA).

They represent the EU’s main export markets, in terms of goods (40.9% of goods exports in 2010), services (40.0%) and foreign direct investments (41.1% of FDI outward stock): the USA is the EU’s first export market, China second, Russia fourth, Japan sixth, India eighth and Brazil ninth.

“The focus of this report on some of the EU’s strategic partners does obviously not mean that barriers in other markets should be neglected,” the report stresses. “On the contrary, the Commission is actively engaging with a far broader group of trading partners to improve market access conditions for EU companies still confronted with a considerable number of trade obstacles.”

The EU and Canada have agreed to co-operate more closely by building on their existing customs co-operation agreement and extending it to include supply chain security and related risk-management matters.

EU Customs Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta said: “In a globalised world with globalised trade, no country can ensure the security of their supply chain in isolation. International co-operation is essential to protect citizens’ security while allowing the smooth flow of trade.”

The agreement would, he went on, provide the tools to improve customs controls while cutting red tape for safe traders in both territories.

Co-operation will include working towards mutual recognition of risk-management techniques, risk standards, security controls and trade partnership programmes, ie the EU’s Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) and Canada’s Partners in Protection (PIP).

The agreement will be concluded after the ratification process in the EU and Canada, which is expected to take place in the coming months, is completed.

More information on EU customs co-operation agreements is available on the European Commission website.

We have today received CV’s from Norwich City Council, for 2 candidates from our french twin city of Rouen, who are looking for workplacements.

They are looking for 3 month compulsory internships, in order to complete their Masters year.

Their CV’s can be found below.

If you have a possible gap and can offer this to either of the students, please contact:

Norwich City Council Andy Emms Democratic Services Manager Tel. 01603 212459 Email: andyemms@norwich.gov.uk