Brown: Business and government have to work together
23rd February 2010
Prime minister Gordon Brown has called on international businesses and governments to work together to safeguard the global economic recovery.
Hosting the Global Investment Conference, Mr Brown pointed out that 2009 was characterised by recession on a worldwide scale and stressed the importance of facilitating recovery over the course of next year.
'This is not about a partnership of governments or a partnership of international business, but a partnership of international business and government. It is about how together we can lock in the recovery and grasp the opportunities of the future,' he told delegates.
The conference, which took place yesterday (February 22nd), saw around 250 world business leaders, academics and entrepreneurs gather in London to discuss how the fragile economic recovery can be sustained.
Lord Davies, trade, investment and small business minister, also spoke at the event to claim that economic growth and prosperity across the globe can be restored if international business is encouraged to resume.
Other speakers at the conference included Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, Mercedes GP chief executive Nick Fry and Andrei Kostin, chairman and chief executive of Russia's VTB Bank.
Mr Brown also used the event to announce that GBP 200 million from the UK Innovation Investment Fund will be channelled into the life sciences, digital and advanced manufacturing industries.