90-140
Brus
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OB
erseas Trade Board
IN CONFIDENCE
THE MARKET ASSESSMENT PROGRAMME
NOTE BY THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
The attached paper sets out the results of the 1986 Market Assessment Programme, on whichthe Chairmen's views are sought, before final recommendations are put to the Board for consideration at their meeting on 20 January 1987.
Chairmen will recall that the Market Assessment Programme and the Cost Impact Programme are the two major ways in which the Board reviews the allocation of resources to
While the Cost ensure their optimum cost effective use. Impact Programme reviews the effectiveness of individual services leading to decisions on the allocation of resources between them, the Market Assessment exercise looks at the allocation of resources (including staff resources at home and overseas) by markets, setting this in the context of widely differing characteristics and prospects in those markets and the strategies adopted to promote exports to them. Both programmes are undertaken jointly with the FCO. To the extent that the Market Assessments exercise touches on the staffing of Diplomatic Service posts, which is the responsibility of FCO Ministers, the FCO take account of its conclusions in their own manpower planning arrangements.
Following the annual public expenditure discussions, the resources available to the Board, including staff resources,
now effectively fixed until 1st April 1988.
We will of course continue to look for efficiency savings wherever we can: but the basic question posed in this paper is to what extent a fixed volume of resources should be reallocated by market in the light of changing economic and trading prospects in the short and medium term.
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December 1986
IN CONFIDENCE