UK Soft Power Group. Newsletter β Sign Up. But it also raised serious questions as to whether the UK is fully prepared to compete for the opportunities Africa represents to UK business. Government support for trade in these markets is important. While not all African states are command economies, the state is a major actor, and government to government engagement is critical for UK export success. Whilst the list of the business delegation accompanying the PM included some exceptional companies and very impressive people, it did not represent the scale or breadth of UK PLC many African counterparts expected.
The UK is seen by its current and future trading partners as excelling at fashion, the creative industries, the professions, education, expertise in infrastructure, healthcare and medtech, finance and fintech.
Many of these represent major opportunities with Africa. So where were the likes of the British Fashion Council, the leading established UK law firms, our leading healthcare sector, the representatives of our world-respected water, transport and infrastructure consultants?
Sure, The City was represented by the Lord Mayor, banking has the impressive Bill Winters and names like Mott Macdonald and JCB flew a flag for infrastructure, but this was hardly a knock- out delegation of the full range of impressive British expertise, a fact commented on by the South African business people asked to travel down from, mainly, Johannesburg, to Cape Town. Doubtless there will be reasons as to why British business was thinly represented; and they will sound fair.
The problem is that last-minute, cobbled together trade delegations have become too regular a feature of UK trade promotion and excuses are not what the host country are interested in. That offer needs to be imaginatively and enthusiastically presented by their visitors based on self- evident, relevant competence. In common with so many parts of the world, the undoubted ability of our embassies to position the UK well with the host country needs an equally persuasive, very focused UK trade offer.
