APPENDIX 52
Memorandum submitted by Yorkshire Forward
INQUIRY ON UKTI'S FIVE-YEAR STRATEGY QUESTIONS
TO REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES
INWARD INVESTMENT
1. What is your annual expenditure and staffing
resource on Inward investment promotion to your region?
a. Please see attached summary sheet.
2. What activities does the agency carry out
to promote inward investment into the region?
a. We have involvement with the North of
England (NOE) Inward Investment Agency function with NWDA and
ONENorthEast as noted on attached sheet.
b. Yorkshire Forward has an office in Hangzhou
in Zhejaing Province China.
c. We provide information to the UKTI offices
on request and have taken the opportunity to visit countries and
companies as and when needed in previous years rather than establish
a permanent base.
3. Is the agency's inward investment promotion
carried out directly by the agency, or by another sponsored body?
a. As on sheet attached we work together
with NWDA and ONE in the NOE function which has operations in
USA/Canada, Japan and Australia. However Yorkshire Forward has
taken the opportunity to cancel the contract with the America
and Canada arm of the function which takes effect as of 1 April
2007.
b. We may well look to agencies in the future
for certain markets as we are in the process of assessing how
best to tackle the markets identified by UKTI and other priority
markets which are key purely to this regions growth strategy.
4. Which sectors and countries is the agency
particularly focused on?
a. Our interest currently lies with a physical
presence in Australia/Japan and China which for the medium term
will continue.
b. We are considering Germany as an option
to expand some of our activities. Yorkshire Forward is as we speak
looking at how we will implement our strategy for attracting foreign
direct investment over the next few months.
c. We will be looking at developing a marketing
plan with regard to USA and Canada as we view this as a good market
place for investment. The level of opportunity we received from
the previous route we felt could be better hence why despite cancelling
the NOE contract we are still going to focus on this market place.
d. Currently our key clusters are as followed;
Advanced Engineering and Metals, Chemicals, Creative & Digital
Industries, Environmental Technologies, Food and Drink, Healthcare
Technologies and Bioscience.
5. How many inward investment projects have
the agency been involved in the last three years?
|
| 2003-04
| 2004-05 | 2005-06
| 2006-07 to date |
|
| Projects | 24
| 43 | 29
| 36 |
| New Jobs | 810
| 2,595 | 1,699.5
| 489 |
| Safeguarded jobs | 664
| 1,207.5 | 1,021
| 353 |
| Total | 1,474
| 3,802.5 | 2,720.5
| 842 |
|
6. Could the agency outline some examples of successful
inward investment projects, which the region has won recently,
and how this has impacted the region?
a. GHD—Please find attached information—an
Australian investment which created 30 new jobs.
b. Axiom based in Wakefield and a USA investor, specialise
in sophisticated data management developers, and maintain one
of the largest databases in the world. The investment created
20 data architect positions all in excess of £40k per annum.
c. Toyoda Gosei—a key account company based in
Rotherham and works in the supply chain for Toyota. The Japanese
company has been very successful in the UK and as such has chosen
to ask for assistance in expansion of its site in Rotherham. This
lead to the creation of a further new 100 jobs and investment
of £4 million.
d. Xceleron Ltd—This York based Japanese company
is a highly knowledge driven company. Xceleron's technologies
have been proven to speed drug development and reduce attrition
rates. They are recognised world leaders in human microdose technology.
The investment into the region created 15 positions.
7. What are the agency's future plans for inward investment
promotion, within the context of UKTI's new five-year strategy?
a. Yorkshire Forward is taking the steer from UKTI and
will be focusing on those sectors and markets that the have been
identified by the UKTI in their research. We already have a presence
in China and our team work closely with the current UKTI personnel
in China.
8. What trade missions to promote exports from the region
has the agency organised or taken part in over the last three
years?
a. Yorkshire Forward have not organised trade missions
directly but have provided joint funding with UKTI to fund our
partners such as Business Link and The Humber Trade Zone to organise
trade missions with UKTI at a regional and sub-regional level.
The cluster teams from Yorkshire Forward have also attended trade
fairs both directly and indirectly with trade associations and
have previously taken Yorkshire companies to these fairs.
9. How do you determine which missions to promote? Do you
ever co-operate with other RDAs in promoting joint missions? Do
you encourage/allow firms from outside your region to participate
in your missions?
a. Trade missions tend to be aligned with the regions
strengths i.e. our clusters. The region will use UKTI regional
trade specialists to aid both international trade and in the future
inward investment.
Yorkshire Forward Promoting and Supporting Foreign
Direct Investment
All costs are based on the current year 2006-07 forecast.
Average salaries have been compiled taken into consideration those
who have only worked part of the year within certain roles apportioned.
The average salaries do not include on costs such as T&S
which are shown separately and are exact for the last nine months
and estimated for the next three months till the financial year
end.
** the figures are for the financial year 2006-07 and as
such there are assumptions as to expenditure levels on the variable
of expenses incurred in the carrying out the roles within the
team.
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