“This Government is committed to selling the UK proposition - why foreign companies should set up here and why our companies are the partners of choice in ICT”.

From the foreword of the Strategy Document.

The Organisation of Proposed Trade and Investment Priorities

The document, entitled 'UK Information and Communication Technologies Sector: An International Marketing Strategy' provides a summary of some of the key strengths of the UK ICT sector, and how this relates to a number of key vertical sub-sectors, both in the UK and overseas. The key elements of the strategy are the government's prioritisation of global trade opportunities by sector, and the prioritisation of global investment opportunities by sector.

These priorities are assigned according to both the target country and the target sector, and are ranked as either: High, Medium or Low. The target countries are also organised according to whether they are established markets, or developing markets.

The key sectors that have been chosen for this purpose are: Communications, Consumer Electronics, E-government, Enterprise Systems, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrial Electronics and Retail/logistics.

In order to make best use of the resources available, this strategy is highly targeted, so a relatively small number of the country/sector combinations have been assigned as 'High' priorities. Those areas that have been allocated a 'High' priority in the strategy are summarised below.

Summary of the Government's Proposed 'High' Trade Priorities

For established markets of scale - Japan, Korea and the US have been targeted for: Communications, Consumer electronics and Industrial electronics. In addition, Japan and the US have been targeted for: Financial services, Healthcare and Retail/logistics. France has also been targeted for: Healthcare and Retail/logistics. The US alone has also been targeted for Enterprise systems.

For developing markets with both scale and potential: China has been targeted for: Communications, Consumer electronics and Retail/logistics. India has been targeted for: Communications. Russia has been targeted for Communications and Financial services.

For established markets with opportunities, and developing markets with high potential: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have been targeted for Healthcare alone. Hong Kong has been targeted for: Communications, Financial services, Healthcare, Industrial electronics and Retail/logistics. Singapore has been targeted for Industrial electronics and Retail/logistics.

Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam have been targeted for Retail/logistics alone. Egypt has been targeted for Enterprise systems alone. Sri Lanka has been targeted for both E-government and Retail/logistics.

Summary of the Government's Proposed 'High' Investment Priorities

High investment priorities have only been allocated for established markets of scale, as follows: France, Germany and the US have been targeted for all sectors. Canada has been targeted for: Communications, E-government, Financial services and Healthcare. Japan has been targeted for: Communications, Consumer electronics, Enterprise systems and Industrial electronics. Korea has been targeted for: Consumer electronics and Industrial electronics.