HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Stephen Timms opens first Annual Westminster Ethnic Minority Business Exhibition [March 2000]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 8 March 2000.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms today opened Westminster’s first annual ethnic minority business exhibition.

Mr Timms was visiting the Exhibition in London as part of pre-budget tour being carried out by Gordon Brown and his Treasury Ministers to take advice on the shape of the Government’s employment and enterprise initiatives for the years to come.

Speaking at the Exhibition Mr Timms said:

“We want to see not only the work ethic reinvigorated in every community of Britain but a dynamic business culture which encourages enterprise open to all. That is the message we want to spread – enterprise expanded to people and places too often forgotten in the past.

“We know that more than one third of all unemployed people in London come from ethnic minorities. But we also know ethnic minority businesses already play a leading role in everyday business life across the country. Businesses from the ethnic minority communities contribute well over £8 billion each and every year to the British economy.

“I have seen in other parts of London and across the country during my regional tours the contribution ethnic minority businesses are making. We know, for example, that the rate of business start-ups per head is higher in the ethnic minority communities than in the wider community. With more people in work today then ever before we now have a great opportunity to make sure the benefits of enterprise and rising prosperity and spread wider. That’s why this business exhibition is so important for Westminster.”