Invest in Nottingham (IIN) has been working hard to build on existing relationships with Germany, India and China.
Sam Hopwell from Nottingham City Council (NCC) gives a flavour of things that are currently happening and what’s planned for 2015:
Germany
Invest in Nottingham will be attending Global Connect in Stuttgart from 4 – 5 November. This forum is for German companies looking to take their first steps into globalisation and our role is to put Nottingham on the map. We will be partnering with Intergest who attended the German dinner in May.
Karlsruhe OB visit – action from this is for Nottingham City Council ED department and IIN to arrange a reciprocal visit in Feb 2015 to progress discussions to encourage trade, investment and collaboration between our two cities.
Trade mission to Germany (Karlsruhe, Munich & Krefeld) planned for September 2015. This will be organised in partnership with DNLCC and Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).
India
A third Nottingham mission to India is planned for 18 – 25 November. David Bishop, Cllr McDonald, Sam Hopwell, Thalej Vasishta and Hardev Singh will be meeting businesses, attending trade and economic exhibitions, hosting seminars and meeting with governments in Delhi and Chandigarh to further develop trade & investment links.
As a direct result of the activity to date, we have welcomed 5 Indian businesses to Nottingham and continue to work with them on establishing their businesses here. We are working with several more enquiries and will be holding follow up meetings during the November visit.
China
We now have a full-time interim resource to help develop NCC’s China strategy. Rob Avery-Phipps studied at UNNC and is now working with us to build connections in Ningbo and Shanghai.
We are working with UoN to develop a Nottingham presence at the Great Festival of Creativity Event in Shanghai 3 – 5 March 2015.
2015 is the 10 year anniversary of our sister city agreement with Ningbo, we look forward to welcoming a delegation from there in June 2015 and to a further outward mission in October 2015.
Other
An International Strategy Board has been established bringing together expertise from the business community, NCC, NMB and our universities. They meet quarterly to provide a steer to the country campaigns.