UK tech firms ‘must target emerging markets in Asia’

THE UK’S tech sector must focus on emerging markets in Asia after Brexit and the country will remain open to the “brightest and best” workers from around the world, Philip Hammond said.

In a speech to financial technology (FinTech) entrepreneurs and investors, the Chancellor said the UK must look east in search of growth in the increasingly important sector, which is worth around £7bn to the economy and employs 60,000 people.

Mr Hammond said “the world does not owe us a living” and the UK would have to fight to maintain its status as a leading player on the global stage.

He announced measures by banking giants Barclays and HSBC to boost FinTech firms in a speech in the City of London.

With the UK in the process of leaving the European Union, he insisted that the country’s immigration system would remain open to talent from overseas.

Mr Hammond, who led a trade delegation to India last week, said: “If the UK is going to make the most of the freedoms it will have after leaving the European Union, we have to build trade links with the fast-growing economies of Asia.

“We have to invest in the skills of the future and our economy must remain at the cutting edge – not just of FinTech, but of AI (artificial intelligence), biotech – of every area in which we have the potential to lead the world into this new industrial revolution.

“The world does not owe us a living. We will have to strive and graft and fight to seize opportunities, and make the most of them.”

He said: “We need to continue to attract the brightest and the best from around the world to these shores – and we will,” but he added the UK must also “do better at nurturing and developing” home-grown talent.

Mr Hammond said the “fourth industrial revolution”, driven by advances in areas such as FinTech, had the potential to “fundamentally transform the structure of the global economy, and the way we live our lives”.

The world does not owe us a living. We will have to graft. Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer.