A
3
7 July 1982]
[Mr McNally Contd.]
THE INDUSTRY AND TRADE COMMITTEE
MR PETER REES, MP, MR C B BENJAMIN and MR A DUNNING
not necessar-
man turning up in a market ily in South East Asia-coming to our embassy and saying "How do I go about selling my particular product?". We have tried (I hope this does not sound patronis- ing) to educate industry, and vast sectors are very sophisticated indeed in the facili- ties that are available, as to how they should take advantage of them in trying to pene- trate a particular market. There is a con- stant need for publicity just to make clear, particularly to the first-time entrant, what exactly can be done by the BOTB, what the range of ECGD services are, what you can expect at the commercial section of an embassy or high commission, and so on. As I said, this is a continuous process and it may be that we do not always match up to what is required, but we are very conscious of the need to do that.
73. What are the channels of communi- cation that you use to get this message home to British industrialists, apart from newspa- per advertisements?
(Mr Rees.) Regional offices of the BOTB. We have, for example this is quite out- side South East Asia · had an "Export to Europe" drive where there has been a series of conferences all across the country and other Ministers have made contributions to them. We have tried to bring in a particular range of businessmen who have not ex- ported in that particular field or that parti- cular area. So that they are aware of the procedures, the underpinning that we can give, and, as I said, it is a continuous process and we are always trying to update our methods and heighten our contacts.
74. Do you make use of the trade associations and chambers of commerce to disseminate this information about the help available?
(Mr Rees.) Very much, and we find, of course, that some are more sophisticated than others and some lead extremely worth- while delegations. If I can give an example, the London Chamber of Commerce had a delegation to the ASEAN countries led by Lord Jellicoe this year. Obviously some of the smaller chambers are not equipped to do that kind of thing. Again I can say that Westminster Chamber of Commerce has just sent a delegation with senior officials from the Department of Trade to Hong- kong. There are many examples of that. So they have an extremely valuable role to play.
(Chairman.) Now let us look at one or
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[Continued
two specific places, first Singapore - Mr Maxwell-Hyslop.
Mr Maxwell-Hyslop.
75.
Just to make sure that we known what your evidence means, if we turn to Annex C-III, with reference to Singapore's share of EEC exports, we see it has fallen from 13% in 1970 to 34% in 1980. Does that mean that the proportion of British exports by value which goes to Singapore as com- pared with the whole of the rest of the world has fallen from 13% in 1970 to 34% in 1980, or does it mean that the percentage of imports into Singapore coming from Britain by value has dropped from 13% to 34% in those years?
(Mr Rees.) It means that the share of what I call the import market of Singapore that had previously been taken by the United Kingdom in 1970 was 13%, whereas in 1980 it is 34%.
76. I wonder if that is the same because in Annex B-IV you say Singapore is the United Kingdom's major trading partner in ASEAN although our market share has dropped to 7% over the last decade. Since 7 is twice 34%, I wondered whether perhaps the alternative explanation of the figures in Annex C-III was, in fact, the correct one, namely, that the proportion of our exports rather than the proportion of Singapore's imports was the figure.
(Mr Rees.) First of all, may I make one correction. We have talked about the world. It is very clearly the total share of OECD exports. I known Mr Dunning is anxious to come in.
(Mr Dunning.) I was simply going to say, Chairman, this table relates to OECD countries. The British share of exports to these various countries from OECD coun- tries, not from the world.
77. So that is the British percentage total of OECD exports?
(Mr Rees.) To the ASEAN countries.
78. The figure of 13% as compared with 34% is the British percentage of all OECD exports to Singapore?
(Mr Rees.) Yes.
79. And we have not got any other OECD- Yes, we have. Now, presumably this is nothing to do with our membership of the EEC, is it, because in the same period of time that ours drops from 13% to 34%, the German increased from 6% to 8% and
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.