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European leaders hear of Liverpool progress

Business leaders from across the continent have heard about Liverpool City Region’s re-emergence as an eminent business destination at the European Business Summit (EBS) in Brussels.

This summer, Liverpool Vision is working with UK Government to deliver the International Festival for Business (IFB 2014), the biggest event of its kind for more than 60 years.

Ahead of this, festival director Ian McCarthy was invited to speak at the EBS, the annual summit for business leaders and policymakers in Europe.

At the Regional Competitiveness session, he told the audience about the story of how Liverpool has restored its economic competitiveness during a time of austerity, using European funding to attract considerable private sector investment to transform the city into an international business hub.

As well as detailing the city’s recent successes, he outlined the further development expected to follow on from the festival in June and July.

Spanning 50 days and comprising more than 200 events, from international conferences to seminars and networking events, IFB 2014 will be a global showcase for business and industry and will champion UK to new markets, new products and new partners.

Key themes of the festival are: manufacturing, science & technology; maritime, logistics & energy; knowledge, professional & financial services; higher & further education & research; low carbon & renewables; cities, enterprise & urban business; knowledge, creative & digital.

Ian McCarthy said: “The support and interest IFB2014 has received from the Benelux region, and Europe as a whole, has been immense. There is a strong recognition of Liverpool’s strength as a place of business, as well as culture and heritage.

“Hosting IFB2014 on behalf of the UK is further evidence both of our success and our continuing ambition. The festival is first and foremost about trade and investment and Europe remains our key export market and it’s vital to UK business that Europe takes part.

“It’s also rare that an event of this magnitude is staged anywhere so it offers a great opportunity to showcase the whole of the EU to the rest of the world.

“IFB2014, though, is more than a B2B trade expo and it complements the policy agenda at the European Business Summit. The Cities, Enterprise & Urban Business week contains many events which will examine the challenges faced by cities aiming to drive their economic growth.”

One of the key events at IFB2014 is the BT Global City Leaders’ Summit on June 18th when more than 300 city leaders and senior members of local government from some of the world’s most renowned cities meet in Liverpool to discuss how they are ‘Delivering growth in times of austerity.’

Keynote speeches come from among others, Bruce Katz of Washington DC’s Brookings Institute, Greg Clark, the UK’s Minister of State for Cities and Joe Anderson OBE, Mayor of Liverpool.

United Kingdom Trade & Investment is also hosting several key market events including a Benelux and Europe day on June 19th. This one-day conference will explore current Benelux business opportunities and offer market insight and support through a series of seminars and workshops.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .