Warning Follows Successful India Trade Mission In Leeds And Sheffield

The number of manufacturing firms based in India looking to forge new trade links with Yorkshire businesses is set to increase significantly during the next 12 months – according to law firm, Irwin Mitchell.

Irwin Mitchell, which hosted a trade visit (19 November 2013) from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), says that businesses here in the region must take advantage of this renewed interest from India and look to grow the amount of trade they do in the country.

Sandip Khroud, an associate in the Corporate team at the Leeds office of Irwin Mitchell is also a director of the Yorkshire Asian Business Association. He said:

The trip saw 20 manufacturers visit Irwin Mitchell’s offices in Leeds. Here the delegation met with representatives from Yorkshire businesses on a one-to-one basis and then visited a number of manufacturing businesses across Sheffield before returning to Leeds for a dinner.

In addition to Irwin Mitchell, other organisations that were involved were the Yorkshire Asian Business Association and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI). There were also representatives from Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in Leeds and Sheffield.

The visit to Yorkshire comes at a time when the Government is looking to increase the number of businesses that are exporting. The Government recently launched its ‘Exporting is GREAT’ initiative is described at the ‘biggest ever’ push to raise the proportion of firms that currently export to a quarter. The figure currently stands at a fifth.

Business Secretary, Vince Cable, is also targeting £1.2bn in export revenue from the leads it generates.

Founded over 118 years ago, the CII has over 7100 members and is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed business association. Members operate in the public and private sectors and range from SMEs to multinational corporations.