US companies still make the UK their top European location choice because of their confidence in our business environment, the skills of our workforce and the excellence of our science base. Figures published by the US Government Bureau of Economic Affairs last year show that US companies invest twice as much into the UK as they do into the Netherlands, over four times that into Germany and six times that into France.

Finding out about the opportunities, setting up a base and working in the UK is easy and rewarding. Rewarding because the UK Government has pursued policies that promote competition and have produced the economic stability, low inflation and low interest rates that encourage both UK and overseas companies to invest with confidence. Investors in the UK benefit from low rates of corporate and personal taxation and labour costs are among the most competitive in Europe. New tax credits announced last year for R&D work make the UK attractive as a location for technology-driven companies. And, for most companies, no taxation on foreign dividend income and capital gains tax exemption on the sale of subsidiaries, provide a strong investment incentive.

And it is easy because companies looking to locate their European operations in the UK receive advice and support from the national investment agency Invest·UK and its partner agencies in the English regions and in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. They work together – both in the UK and US – to help investors plan, establish and expand their projects here. Invest·UK works at the heart of Government to represent the interests of investors.

Invest·UK is giving greater priority to attracting high-value projects including those which support the development of technology-based clusters. The UK’s response to increasing global competition and the ever-faster pace of change in world markets is through innovation and creativity.

We have a well-established and enviable reputation for achievement – in manufacturing, in the sciences, in services – as well as in the arts, design and film. Our future success is based on exploiting our valuable assets of knowledge and skills. They are the keys to providing the high-value goods, modern services and advanced business practices that are at the core of a marketdriven economy.

The Growth Plus annual benchmarking study analysing the entrepreneurial environment in Europe and the US reveals the UK as the most entrepreneur friendly of the 10 countries surveyed, above even the US. US based entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial management talent can use Invest·UK’s new Global Entrepreneurs Programme to find out more about the benefits of setting up a business or joining a start-up in the UK. The Programme provides access networks for finance, for talent and for research and development – particularly in information and communications technologies and life sciences.

In 2001, Invest·UK launched the UK@ brand to showcase UK science and technology excellence at international trade fairs such as Comdex, in Las Vegas. Leading academics and researchers from universities and research institutes across the UK attend to present their latest projects. It is an ideal opportunity for your top companies – large and small – to meet some of our best brains and discuss the potential for new collaborative research opportunities. Specialists working with our investment staff across America are helping more US companies find out about the UK as a world-class centre for science. Biotechnology sector specialist Alice Pomponio has proved an invaluable go-to source for media covering the life sciences and provides a UK perspective on the industry, which is frequently published and broadcast across the US.

In the UK the Government has increased the Development Agencies’ role in the English regions and in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales as strategic drivers of economic development. And each Agency takes a regional lead on inward investment too, including producing a regional skills action plan to match training to the needs of the labour market. This ensures the development of the high-quality workplace skills base that is an essential resource for today’s technology-driven companies. Grant assistance is also available to companies that locate, expand, or modernise in selected areas.

The UK offers international investors a unique, businessfriendly environment and an excellent gateway into Europe. I hope the information in BritishAmerican Business 2003 will help you realise the many opportunities that a UK location and the European market can bring.

Sir Stephen Brown is Group Chief Executive of British Trade International, the government body set up to support UK firms trading internationally and to encourage foreign investment through its operating arms Trade Partners UK and Invest·UK.