Lord Cotter
Main Page: Lord Cotter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)(10 years, 3 months ago)
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Lord Popat
My Lords, you cannot force a company in the free market to make an investment, but you can create the conditions for such things to happen. I am pleased to say that the conditions in this country are now pretty good for businesses to invest money.
Lord Cotter (LD)
My Lords, exporting is very important for this country, but can be daunting and difficult for small businesses. Will the Minister ensure, through UKTI and otherwise, that it is made easier for small businesses to actually get funding for exporting, which is an essential need for the country?
Lord Popat
My Lords, when I first came to this House, I set up an ad hoc committee to see what we could do to help SMEs to export more and have access to finance. The report was published in this very House, and we now have a large number of schemes, with UKTI working to help our SMEs to export more and to make funds available for exporting.