Trade and Investment for Growth White Paper

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

The hon. Lady is right to say that trade is crucial in her part of the country, and I have had discussions with her and her neighbours about the ceramics industry, which is clearly one of our success stories, and we should promote it. I also met the chairman of her local enterprise partnership, who was a good deal more sanguine about its prospects than she is.

[Lorely Burt (Solihull) (LD)]

I warmly welcome this statement, particularly the measures for SMEs. The previous Government were very good at helping with weapons and the aerospace industry, but this is one sector that really needed some help. What can my right hon. Friend do to publicise the scheme to ensure that all SMEs that are thinking of exporting can benefit fully from the measures that we are taking today?

[Vince Cable]

I would not completely deprecate efforts to promote the aerospace industry—I am doing the same—but my hon. Friend is right to say that the key message of the statement is about SMEs. Compared with countries such as Germany, the number of our small businesses that export is relatively small, and we have to publicise that help through bodies such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the chambers of commerce, as well as through our website. We will be active in doing that.