Europe is becoming a unified market. This offers major opportunities to UK business ready to think on a European scale. The world economy is also becoming more open. There are larger markets offering greater opportunities. At the same time competitors are stronger and more numerous.
Capital is increasingly mobile.
An increasing number of low cost countries have educated and skilled workforces, well resourced and capable of delivering sophisticated goods and services. Science is generating entirely new industries, such as biotechnology, faster than ever before. Increasing pressure on our environment and natural resources presents new opportunities and challenges for business innovation. In the increasingly global economy of today, we cannot compete in the old way. Capital is mobile, technology can migrate quickly and goods can be made in low cost countries and shipped to developed markets.