Martin Uden

More on Sir Andrew Cahn's visit

Sir Andrew Cahn’s visit last week served to show how important the EU/Korea FTA should be for UK/Korean trade when it comes into force hopefully later this year. It was a recurrent theme in most of his meetings, but was also centre-stage at a meeting we held for representatives of British business in Korea. It’s going to affect them differently, depending on their market segment, but they are keen to hear about our plans to identify the opportunities that will arise for business here. In fact though, the difficult part is not trying to get the message out to companies and individuals that are already here – it’s telling companies in the UK that don’t have the Korean market on their radar screen as yet. But we have various plans to get the word out in the coming months back in the UK, and I’ll write about that more in the next few weeks.

Posted at 17:57 08 February 2010 by Martin Uden  |  Comments[0]

Korean investment in Britain changes direction

It's been great to have Andrew Cahn, the head of UK Trade and Investment on his first ever trip to Korea.  He's been able to talk a lot about the potential of our two countries in the trade and investment relationship.  One recent development that really marks a change in the way Korean companies look at the UK has been the investment in a small number of UK companies that had good technology but for varying reasons needed new owners.  Most recently (just last week) the chemicals subsidiary of the Lotte Group bought Artenius UK from its administrators and are looking to re-open its chemicals plant on Teesside.  And early last year Dong-Ah Tires bought Avon Automotive's Vibration Management Systems, and now employ 180 people in the South-West of England.  The largest ever Korean investment in the UK came in 2006 when Doosan Heavy Industries bought Mitsui Babcock. 

This is only a small number of investments over about 3 years, but it's still a large vote of confidence in these firms - and Doosan Babcock has been a great example, treading the recruitment trail very heavily, adding jobs in several locations across the UK since Doosan took over including many research positions at their R&D centre in Renfrew.  In each case, I hope that UK technology and our highly skilled workforce can continue to combine with Korean manufacturing skills to move these companies forward further still.

Posted at 13:46 03 February 2010 by Martin Uden  |  Comments[0]