Birmingham Enterprise Community has launched a partnership with the Gold Coast Innovation Hub in Australia which is planned to support entrepreneurial collaboration, trade and investment & growth opportunities between businesses in the UK and Australia.
The announcement comes on the back of a historic trade agreement being agreed between the United Kingdom and Australian Governments which is set to significantly boost trade between the two countries past the £13.9 billion of last year and includes closer collaboration in multiple sectors including Security, Defense & Clean tech. The agreement is also due to provide benefits for other sectors through the reduction of tariffs and red tape related to the trade of goods and services such as the Food & Beverage sector and Professional Services. Speaking about the agreement, Prime Minister Borris Johnson said “This deal delivers for Britain and shows what we can achieve as a sovereign trading nation. It is a fundamentally liberalising agreement that removes tariffs on all British goods, opens new opportunities for our services providers and tech firms, and makes it easier for our people to travel and work together.”
Birmingham Enterprise Community & Gold Coast Innovation Hub have partnered just at the right time to provide support to businesses from the UK & Australia looking to take advantage of new trade deals and expand their businesses globally. The partnership comes at a time when both the Gold Coast region and West Midlands region are emerging as hot spots for international trade in their respective countries. Last week, new data released in the UK from the Department for International Trade revealed that the West Midlands has emerged as the UK’s leading location for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) outside London and the South East for the fourth year in a row.
The initial stage of the partnership will see collaboration take place as part of the Gold Coast Innovation Hub’s new PLAY Sportech Accelerator programme.
Daniel Evans, Chief Executive of the Birmingham Enterprise Community said the new partnership with the Gold Coast Innovation Hub formalised a great existing relationship and commitment to support business growth within our regions at a time of increasing activity and opportunity. “Birmingham has proven to be a hotbed of business and investment activity and in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games this is only set to increase. The region provides an excellent landing pad for international organisations entering the UK and we see the partnership between the Gold Coast Innovation Hub and the Birmingham Enterprise Community as a crucial bilateral pathway between the Australian and UK markets for the technology and startup sector.”
Gold Coast Innovation Hub Chief Executive, Sharon Hunneybell said that the partnership was evidence of the commitment that the organisation has made to support global commercialisation of startups and technology from the region “Breaking into international markets is hard for early stage founders that are still building their brand and reputation. The PLAY Accelerator series, which is commencing with a Sportstech Accelerator, has been designed to leverage the relationships built by the Gold Coast Innovation hub, its founders and board over many years to provide warm and welcome introductions into leading international sporting groups, events and investors.”
Birmingham Enterprise Community is already in talks with multiple other partners in order to build similar partnerships to enable international businesses with easy strategic access to the UK market, supporting the growth & globalisation of innovative businesses from across the world, whilst also building pathways that it can use to support the expansion of UK based businesses looking to scale.
For more information about the partnership or support on entering the UK market contact the BEC team on hello@birminghamenterprisecommunity.co.uk
