Latest news with #competitiveness
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
EU Climate Push Comes Under Pressure With France Flagging Risks
The European Union's interim climate plan for 2040 faces a pushback at a summit of the bloc's leaders, where French President Emmanuel Macron plans to stress the need for competitive industry during the green transition. Macron is seeking to raise the issue during a debate on competitiveness scheduled later on Thursday, setting the stage for other leaders to express their concerns about the climate goal to be proposed next week, according to diplomats familiar with the matter.
Times
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Times
Labour's industrial energy strategy lacks ambition, say carmakers
The automotive industry has told the government that its plan to cut high energy costs for Britain's manufacturers does not go far or deep enough. In its long-awaited industrial strategy announced this week, the government said it planned to cut bills by up to 25 per cent for higher energy-intensive manufacturers in an attempt to help them become more competitive with international rivals. It said its proposals would help energy costs for as many as 7,000 companies. • Keir Starmer unveils 'targeted, long-term' industrial strategy At the annual summit of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) in London on Tuesday, officials and delegates questioned whether the plan would do enough for manufacturers to become competitive on the global stage at a time when their costs are rising as they attempt to hit net-zero targets. Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, told the summit that the level of reduction and planned help could only be the start as British manufacturers have the highest energy costs of anywhere in the world and more than double that of some European Union competitors. This is against a backdrop of also having some of the world's highest business rates and regulatory costs. 'It's a good first step but we need to go further,' he said of the government's strategy. The co-architect of the government proposals, Sam Lister, director-general of industrial strategy at the Department for Business and Trade, conceded: 'We are bottom of the global league tables for competitiveness with energy costs [in average for high-intensity users] of £160 per MWhr. The interventions announced … gets us down to about £120/MWhr.' He added: 'That is a significant reduction that gets us back into the middle of the pack in terms of Europe.' One delegate, however, immediately reacted: 'Is that ambitious enough?' Of the plans to help 7,000 manufacturing companies, Katherine Bennett, chief executive of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, a government co-funded agency, said: 'What happens to the 7,001st and others that are not eligible?' The carworkers' leader Steve Turner, assistant general secretary at Unite the trade union, said the aid proposals would not go deeply enough into the manufacturing supply chain. The price of energy is the single largest issue for employers, he said, and its reform is crucial 'if we want to be competitive'. Britain has large manufacturing plants at Sunderland with Nissan, in the West Midlands with Jaguar Land Rover and Oxford with BMW Mini. At lower volumes Toyota makes hybrids in Derbyshire and Stellantis builds electric vans in Cheshire. Rolls-Royce in Sussex, Bentley in Cheshire and Aston Martin in Warwickshire are among the world's top luxury carmakers. In recent times Honda has quit Britain and Jaguar closed its old plant to assembly. • Energy prices mean UK industrial strategy is built on weakness Of the government's commitment that the industrial strategy's primary aims are exports and attracting foreign inward investment, Turner said: 'Who's going to come here the way the energy costs are?' He warned of a 'policy disconnect' in the cabinet over policy objectives of departments, for example, between the business department's industrial strategy and the energy department's net zero agenda. 'We cannot decarbonise by deindustrialisation,' Turner said. 'We have got to get a co-ordinated strategy across government.' Regarding the mechanisms to deliver cheaper industrial energy, Lister admitted: 'We have more to do on how we do it.' As for the government's industrial energy plans, Liam Byrne, the chairman of the Commons business select committee, has both cheered and warned the government. 'Ministers have heeded the call for bold action to slash the industrial energy costs that hang like an albatross around the neck of British business,' he said. 'This is not a minor shift. It is, perhaps, the most substantial remaking of the way government and business work together that we've seen in a generation, but now we need to see the small print of how the plan for energy will be delivered.'
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Strategy without substance: Labour must do more to stop the City exodus, says ALEX BRUMMER
Now we have a full house: Labour's spending review, the infrastructure plan and the long-awaited industrial strategy. Anyone seeking to reconcile the bucketful of numbers, different timings of implementation and the exact sum of money involved will, to quote departing Institute of Fiscal Studies chief Paul Johnson, be baffled. This is not to say that there is not good stuff in the industrial strategy. The decision to relieve a bunch of manufacturing business, some 7,000 firms, of intrusive green levies represents a significant change of direction which should improve the competitiveness of the motor, aerospace and chemical industries. But it does not do much help for retail and hospitality, which face not just escalating fuel costs but the consequences of the employers' National Insurance increase and ramped-up business rates. Whitehall is a whizz at coming up with an alphabet soup of new names such as the 'British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme' and a 'Connections Accelerator Service'. Hot air: Whitehall is a whizz at coming with an alphabet soup of new names such as the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme and a Connections Accelerator Service These will sit alongside the other good stuff already unveiled, such as Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund. How this hangs together is confusing. The focus on eight sectors where the UK excels – advanced manufacturing, clean energy, creative industries, defence, digital tech, financial services, life sciences, and professional and business services – clearly has merit. Much of it is hot air. There is no recognition that great swathes of tech leave these shores daily. Only yesterday, precision instrument maker Spectris fell into the hands of private equity plunderer Advent. The creative industries are under threat from AI because Sir Keir Starmer favours American big tech over home-grown talent. The decision to refuse assistance to AstraZeneca vaccine production in the UK encouraged our biggest pharma concern to invest overseas. UK fintech creation Wise and Revolut plan New York listings. And the 2.5 per cent of GDP promised for defence spending is half the NATO target of 5 per cent. Practical steps such as judicious use of the National Security & Investment Act, to end the madness of foreign and private equity bids, would be a good start to a refreshed approach. Health boost In the end, after a revolt from UK long investors, the ridiculous board of NHS and medical property landlord Assura opted for an effective merger with PHP. That may require fewer goodies for executives and the jobs grief which comes with mergers. It must, however, be in the best interest of stakeholders. Those at Assura who felt a cash deal with KKR was the better option were delusional. A search of the British Medical Journal archive provides clear guidance on the impact of private equity ownership in this space. It results in extra cost to patients and payers, secondary effects on health outcomes and 'mixed to harmful impacts on quality'. A KKR deal would also have meant signing away the benefits of a 3 per cent rise in Labour's investment in the NHS to grasping financiers. All the indications are that many reforms to the NHS would focus on community and primary care, enhancing the value of companies investing in clinics and practices. KKR's last offer was 'final', precluding a return with a higher bid. One trusts KKR won't be back for the whole caboodle in six months. Cherry picking Spectris is the latest advanced UK engineer to take the private equity shilling, choosing private equity giant Advent ahead of KKR. The price of £4.4billion paid may look generous but not when one considers the discount to the New York stock market for the best of British engineering. No one in the Government should be complacent. It weakens the London markets. Advent's purchase of Cobham in 2019 and the dismantling of an aviation pioneer was a disgrace. Its key flight refuelling technology was sold to a US rival. The enormous value of Cobham's innovative tech was demonstrated in the epic 18-hour flight of B2 stealth bombers to Iran and back at the weekend. What happened to 'securonomics'?
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ireland Warns Thousands of Jobs at Risk From Pharma Tariffs
(Bloomberg) -- Ireland plans to use its budget cushion to pump money into infrastructure to protect competitiveness as global trade turmoil and tariffs threaten thousands of jobs in the multinational hub. Bezos Wedding Draws Protests, Soul-Searching Over Tourism in Venice One Architect's Quest to Save Mumbai's Heritage From Disappearing NYC Congestion Toll Cuts Manhattan Gridlock by 25%, RPA Reports The small, open economy has a strong fiscal position for now, with a huge budget surplus thanks to corporate tax income from US corporates such as Apple Inc. and Pfizer Inc. But with some of that revenue at risk, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said Monday that the government must use that money with an eye on the longer term. 'One of my deep lessons from the aftermath of the global financial crisis is, when capital investment is decreased, the costs mount up in the future,' he said at Bloomberg's Future of Finance in Ireland event in Dublin. 'If our growth outlook does change, we will use our fiscal position to try to maintain and support capital investment and do all we can to avoid cutting it back again.' The rapidly changing global backdrop is also raising concern for employment. Pharmaceutical tariffs, if imposed by President Donald Trump, are a key worry, with Donohoe warning they could cost the economy 75,000 jobs. While Donohoe said Ireland remains an attractive destination for investment, both the government and the country's central bank have had to acknowledge the threats. Both recently cut their growth forecasts, citing Ireland's large exposure to US President Donald Trump's volatile trade policies. The US administration has repeatedly singled out the Irish model, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying Ireland runs a surplus at America's expense. Trump even raised the matter with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin at a St Patrick's Day White House reception. While Trump's policies have raised new threats for Ireland and Europe, governments are also sensing an opportunity to take advantage and boost competitiveness. Germany is increasing spending, providing a fiscal boost for the region's largest economy, while central bankers and politicians on the continent are talking up the euro's global profile as US policies shake dollar confidence. 'Political events in the US have catalyzed something in Europe and have changed things,' said John O'Toole, global head of multi asset solutions at Amundi. 'Europe is now on a path to reasserting itself and standing on its own two feet.' Real progress is going to require Europe to do a lot more on issues like improving its capital markets and pools of liquidity. And, according to AIB Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Colin Hunt, Europe's Savings and Investments Union has gained momentum thanks to the 'Make America Great Again' movement in the US. 'We are entering a phase of potentially a lot of investment into the European economy, whether it's the German fiscal spending and maybe other countries will follow,' said Polina Hristova, head of Algebris Investments Ireland. 'We need to be more competitive, we need to invest in innovation, we need to be more resilient. There is definitely the impetus now.' --With assistance from Jennifer Duggan. (Updates with comments on Europe starting in eighth paragraph) Luxury Counterfeiters Keep Outsmarting the Makers of $10,000 Handbags Is Mark Cuban the Loudmouth Billionaire that Democrats Need for 2028? Ken Griffin on Trump, Harvard and Why Novice Investors Won't Beat the Pros The US Has More Copper Than China But No Way to Refine All of It Can 'MAMUWT' Be to Musk What 'TACO' Is to Trump? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Connectez-vous pour accéder à votre portefeuille
Arab News
5 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Saudi Vision 2030 puts government performance at heart of economic growth drive, says minister
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 prioritizes enhancing the performance of government bodies and institutions across the public, private, and non-profit sectors, recognizing their vital role in driving economic growth, according to the Kingdom's economy minister. Speaking at the 7th edition of the King Abdulaziz Quality Award, Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Alibrahim, who also chairs the award's supervisory committee, said the initiative boosts competitiveness and strengthens the investment climate. It also drives economic complexity and broadens the reach and quality of services both locally and globally — ultimately generating high-value jobs for the Saudi population, the Saudi Press Agency reported. This aligns with the Kingdom's progress in the 2024 World Competitiveness Yearbook published by the Swiss-based Institute for Management Development, which ranked Saudi Arabia 16th out of 67 of the world's most competitive countries. The business efficiency axis, in particular, advanced from 13th to 12th place. The overall ranking marked a one-position improvement for the Kingdom, driven by gains in business legislation and infrastructure, placing the Kingdom 4th among G20 countries. 'Today, we celebrate national institutions that have proven that institutional excellence is not a slogan, but rather a strategic choice and a consistent management approach,' Alibrahim said in his remarks during the event. He added: 'The King Abdulaziz Quality Award is not just an occasion for recognition, but rather an ongoing journey to create models, stimulate performance, and raise the ceiling of institutional ambition.' Alibrahim highlighted the role of the Saudi National Model for Institutional Excellence, which he described as a practical tool for enhancing capabilities, improving performance, and maximizing institutional impact. The model is a framework that promotes organizational excellence across key sectors, using the King Abdulaziz Quality Award as a benchmark. It focuses on leadership, strategic planning, and measurable outcomes in areas like academic quality and stakeholder satisfaction, guided by scientific methods and national standards. Prince Mohammed bin Turki bin Abdullah, secretary-general of the King Abdulaziz Quality Award, said the initiative serves as a national platform to promote positive competition and consolidates the principles of governance. A total of 63 organizations were recognized across gold, silver, and bronze categories for their application of high standards in quality, governance, and innovation. The gold-level government winners included the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the Saudi Industrial Development Fund, and the General Organization for Social Insurance. Other winners included the Ministry of Transport and Logistics, the Royal Commission for AlUla, and the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance. Thirty-four entities were awarded at the bronze level following a comprehensive evaluation process that measured performance, efficiency, and commitment to continuous improvement. Saudi Arabia's quality award program mirrors similar efforts in more than 90 countries and reflects the Kingdom's ambition to embed institutional excellence into its economic model. The King Abdulaziz Quality Award is positioned as the national benchmark for organizational performance, aiming to drive sustained development across key sectors.
