FCO Minister Hugo Swire Twitter Q&A on the Commonwealth
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Hugo Swire will answer your questions on the Commonwealth live via Twitter on 6 March.
Commonwealth Day is celebrated this year on 10 March and marks the launch of this year’s theme of ‘Team Commonwealth’. The Commonwealth is an extraordinary team; 53 widely differing countries united in shared values working together to further common aims. As competitors from around the globe gather in Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games this summer, team spirit will be on display not just within nations, but also between them.
The Commonwealth Games will be the UK’s first major sporting event since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It will draw in around 6,500 athletes and officials, competing in 17 sports across 40 venues. Sport has a unique power to promote the values we cherish: teamwork, fairness, respect and a sense of achievement – as well as good natured rivalry and competition.
Ahead of the Games themselves in Glasgow, UKTI, the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and the Commonwealth Business Council are working together to deliver a business conference for 200 Commonwealth business leaders. UKTI are also organising a British Business House, which will showcase UK plc to Commonwealth businesses. Studies have suggested that the Commonwealth’s shared history, values, language and similar legal systems equate to a ‘Commonwealth effect’. This could be worth a twenty percent reduction in the cost of doing business between Commonwealth neighbours.
Hugo Swire will answer your questions on the Commonwealth live via Twitter on Thursday 6 March from 0930 to 1015 (GMT). You can submit a question using the hashtag #askFCO and you can follow the Minister on Twitter @HugoSwire.