Emerging Europe in the spotlight
With a market of over 100 million consumers, Central and Eastern Europe is re-packaging its business opportunities for the UK business.
As part of the ongoing marketing campaign, UKTI and the British Rail Industry Association (RIA) hosted on 4-5 October 2012 a joint Polish-Romanian delegation from the railway industry and facilitated the presentation of business opportunities offered by the two largest markets in CEE.
The British Ambassador to Warsaw, and former head of mission in Bucharest, Robin Barnett, explained the relevance of the event: “Emerging Europe, a market of over 100 million people, is open for business. In Poland and Romania, there is much to be done to rehabilitate and develop the rail network supported by over 10 billion Euro of EU funding. This is a huge business opportunity that GREAT British companies can exploit”.
The trade mission enjoyed the presence of Polish Transport Undersecretary of State, Andrzej Massel, and the Romanian Minister for Transport Ovidiu Silaghi. Both officials met with UKTI Minister Lord Green, who has recently visited both Warsaw and Bucharest, to discuss opportunities but also challenges presented by the two markets.
The highlight of the programme was an on-site visit to the Crossrail light train project in the heart of London at Bond Street. The technical capabilities of the engineering team at Crossrail were particularly relevant to the Romanian delegates in the content of ongoing works to upgrade the Bucharest metro network.
British businesses welcomed the networking opportunity hosted by the UKTI. Abder Gharbi, Marketing Development Manager with Samsung Europe noted: “I think it’s a good thing that the markets in Romania and Poland are open for collaboration, they are both in the spectrum of companies delivering in different parts of the world”.
“Emerging Europe” is the brand name under which the British Embassies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are jointly marketing the business opportunities offered by the CEE bloc. Emerging Europe aims to communicate key sector opportunities to a variety of stakeholders in the UK, including individual businesses and the mass media.