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The UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Strategy and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) seven-point Charter demonstrate the Government’s dedication to supporting international business, championing UK business overseas and attracting investors to the country.

The UKTI Strategy is a five year plan that will see it adopt a more entrepreneurial approach to deliver growth. It lays out four pathways to balanced growth:  

• Targeting services at innovative and high growth SMEs to encourage more companies to export, and help existing exporters reach more high growth and emerging markets.
• Winning high value opportunities in overseas markets for UK businesses of all sizes.
• Delivering high quality inward investment, with a drive to market large British infrastructure and regeneration projects to foreign investors.
• Building strategic relationships at the highest levels with the most significant inward investors and with the UK’s top exporters and major overseas buyers.

 Read BIS's International Trade and Investment - the Economic Rationale for Government Support. (PDF, 1.5 Mb) 

The strategy and the FCO's Charter form a central part of the Government’s Plan for Growth, and recognise the fact that a new focus on business is needed if the UK is to remain economically competitive in the years to come. 

Trade and Investment for Growth, a White Paper published in February, set out the Government’s plans to rebalance the economy through trade and investment. UKTI’s Strategy and FCO’s Charter are the next step in this process. The Government is now looking in more detail at how it works with businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and what action can be taken to make this more effective.