Reasons to be cheerful as the times they are a’changin...

coaster year, when business prefers stability. However, you only have to look at a Birmingham skyline dominated by cranes for proof that the city is coping very well and thriving again.

And it is very easy to list a host of impressive infrastructure projects that will change the region for the better over the coming years, from HS2, Paradise and Arena Central through to the new Midland Metropolitan Hospital and Arden Cross plans in Solihull to name a few. Early indications from our research for the Chamber’s final Quarterly Business Report (QBR) of 2016 show an upturn in regional business confidence across the board.

If trends continue until we complete the survey we expect manufacturing and the service sector to be extremely buoyant.

And the survey is expected to show that we have retained one of the outstanding features that makes Greater Birmingham what it is – determination and confidence that proves Birmingham is, indeed, open for business post-Brexit.

All of this is reflected in the Chamber. In November, we celebrated a month of record growth in membership – and this mirrors the fortunes of the region.

It was the Chamber’s best single monthly performance since records began and demonstrates that we bring together the Greater Birmingham business community through extensive services and a wide range of networking events.

The unity this creates helps business of all kinds to work together to bring prosperity to the region.

On the export front, our International Business Hub has embraced the challenge delivered by the Prime Minister at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham to create a global Britain post-Brexit.

We shall be unstinting in our efforts to take Greater Birmingham business to the rest of the country and the world.

The Chamber talks to hundreds of businesses every month and it is obvious from what they tell us that working together with the Chamber is the best route to business success.

And this has been extended to the wider region with the successful launch of the Sutton Coldfield Chamber and the huge interest in a New Year dinner they are sharing with Lichfield and Tamworth at the Belfry is testament to the diversity of the Chamber’s reach both in terms of geography and membership.

Along with Burton, Chase and Solihull Chambers, all of this underlines the value of working together to create the business and jobs that will bring more long-term prosperity to the region. And these issues will be debated when we stage our QBR breakfast at Birmingham City University on January 19.

It is fair to say that 2016 has been a challenging year, but also very much one where businesses, and the business community as a whole in Greater Birmingham and the wider West Midlands, have seized opportunities and risen to those challenges. There is no good reason to expect 2017 to be any less demanding, even without such seismic singular events as Brexit and Trump, but, equally no reason why we should not face that collectively with justified confidence and optimism. Paul Faulkner is chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of

Commerce