Government ministers travel to Nordic countries and Asia to promote UK tech

Two government ministers will travel to two Nordic countries and Asia to promote UK tech and build trade and business links for post-Brexit Britain.

Secretary of state for digital and culture Karen Bradley will travel to Finland and Sweden where she will set out the government’s commitment to growing the UK’s digital economy  –  which is already worth more than £118bn a year and employs more than 1.4 million people.

While minsiter for digital and culture Matt Hancock will be leading a trade mission of UK cyber firms to Singapore.

Both ministers will promote the benefits of investing in the UK and the benefits of collaboration with UK tech businesses, particually those in the AI, govtech, gaming and cyber security sectors.

A sign of the strength of the UK tech industry overall, more than two thirds of all investment made into the sector were made outside of London in 2016, with ministers claiming that since 2001 new technologies have created over three million new jobs.

As of last year, 44,000 people in London currently work in the fintech sector – more than any other European city.

Visiting the fastest growing start-up region in Europe, Bradley will:

• Meet investors and companies at two of the region’s leading tech hubs: Helsinki’s Start-up Sauna and Stockholm’s Sup46, which produced Skype and Spotify and brought a delegation to London Tech Week in June this year.
• Visit established telecoms company Ericsson where she will promote further cooperation in next generation mobile technology, 5G. Ericsson is currently collaborating on one of the government’s £16m 5G test networks at King’s College in London, announced earlier this year.
• Highlight the UK’s expertise as she visits Finland’s Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats and Sweden’s Civil Contingencies Agency. This follows a recent Swedish delegation visiting the UK’s world-leading National Cyber Security Centre.

Hancock will:

• Lead a UK cyber security delegation to Singapore International Cyber Week at the GovWare Conference.
• Open the Singapore International Cyber Week and showcase the UK as a world leader in digital, tech and cyber innovation
• Visit Japan to celebrate the work of the UK’s hugely successful video games industry on a visit to Sega, the nation’s leadership in digital innovation as he visits Sony, and promote the country’s fintech, AI, robotics and 5G sectors.

Karen Bradley, secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, said:

“Britain has become an undisputed European hub for tech investment, with twice as much investment in tech as any other European country, and plans set out in our recent Digital Strategy will help make sure this continues.

“I’ll be in Finland and Sweden to showcase and promote the UK’s booming digital economy and outline how deeper collaboration with our world-leading companies can benefit both regions.”

Matt Hancock, minister for digital, said:

“The UK is a world leader in cyber security and our industry is thriving with exports worth nearly £1.5bn last year.

“I’m determined to help the next generation of firms grow as we build a truly global Britain and hope to make real progress by leading a delegation including some of the nation’s most innovative businesses.”