3. Mr Mackrell (Shell) picked up this theme. We were squandering our colonial heritage. We needed to exploit our historical links, the pervasiveness of English, and the attractions of British culture. The increase in overseas students fees had been a big mistake. We should make the most of assets such as the British Council and the BBC World Sevice. He recognised that this sort of approach to promoting Britain's image abroad was a long-term undertaking. But he regarded it as an essential component of successful foreign trade. 4. Conversely, Professor Leifer (LSE) pointed to the lack of knowledge in Britain of South East Asia. There were only three centres of academic study of South East Asia in the UK and one of those was on the point of closing. As a result there was no real understanding of the region in the UK more widely. Journalistic coverage was poor. This did not encourage businessmen to venture into unknown fields. Professor O'Neill (All Souls College, Oxford) said that as a result UK businessmen were out of the depth in the region. was not part of our culture. We came across badly.
5.
It
There was much discussion of the support provided by HMG to British businessmen. Mr Godwin (Chartered West) recounted that a German businessman in Taiwan had attributed German success in trade to their own effort. In contrast the French and British only succeeded as a result of, respectively, political support in the form of ministerial visits and superior financing packages.. Mr Middleton pointed out that German Chambers of Commerce are subsidized. He and Mr Robinson (Biwater) bemoaned the lack of co-ordination in London between Government Departments concerned with export promotion and support. DTI, ECGD and ATP policy did not appear to be co-ordinated. He agreed with Lord Caithness that a "one-stop shop" was required. A quick negative answer to a request for aid was preferable to long drawn out delays even if the eventual answer was positive. Mr Robinson thought that a "taskforce" of businessmen led by a Minister was a good approach. It had worked well in the Gulf. But thorough preliminary research by embassies was essential. Mr Andrews (The Economist) argued that US Embassies generally were able to provide more systematic and comprehensive commercial data than British missions. He agreed that one reason might be the significantly larger resources available in the US Foreign Service.
16.
Professor O'Neill