Business environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business environment - Assignment ExampleThe parting has long been established as the leading European zone for attracting private investment. In fact, at puzzle it is UKs most successful region for attracting foreign direct investment, and is among the lead five in Europe.The West Midlands is the predict of nearly 2,000 overseas companies from 34 different nations, employing roughly 9% of the regions workforce - nearly a take up of a million people. Birmingham itself can boast of almost 300 overseas companies, which employ over 36,000 people. global and famous companies based in the West Midlands include Peugeot, Ford, BMW, Fujitsu, Oracle, Gap, Denso, IBM, NEC and Johnson Controls.A little over the finish ten years, the West Midlands experienced real economic growth with GDP increasing by nearly 29%, an additional 240,000 people in employment, a fall in unemployment rates from 12.1% to below 8% (2000), economic activity rate at par with the rest of the country, an employmen t rate of around 74% (1998-1999 to 2003), high than the national rate at the start of the three year period (1998-99) and a higher percentage of employees in high technology sectors than the national average in 2000 (Mitra, 2001).Despite noticeable indicators of outgrowth and progress, the West Midlands maintains its status of an under-achieving region. It has under-performed in almost all major areas judging by the economic indicators, if overall performance in the UK is used as a standard. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head in 1999 was 6% below the national average in spite of an increase of nearly 2% from 1998. On the Index of Local Deprivation, the West Midlands has two districts in the top 10 and 6 in the top 50 most deprived areas. In 1997, likewise, the West Midlands had the second lowest manufacturing productivity levels. Gross lever Added per GDP per head has stayed around 6% below the national average throughout the 1990s. Since 1990, unemployment rates afford rem ained above the national average. Finally, the number of VAT- registered traffices has fallen faster than the national average. Compared to EU regions similar to the West Midlands (using the GVA metric), the latter(prenominal) is at par with most other regions and slightly below Bourgogne (France).SMEs in the West Midlands Economy With statistical trends elsewhere, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute the largest share of all enterprises in the West Midlands. The region is constitute of small firms, which would imply that small business activity is characteristic of the regions business and economic scenario. The sectoral spread of the firms limn the profile of the region with its mix of traditional industrial ands agricultural activities, combined with business and financial services. Reflecting overall national patterns, and indeed that of the West Midlands region, no one sub-region has more than two sectors with greater than 20% of the business sites in those s ectors.Potential Sources of SupportAcross the region, Advantage West Midlands is setting up a grade of strategies and business support programmes aimed at motivating and promoting wealth creation and the diversification of the regions economy. Working in adherence with other organisations, the objective is to provide the business support required