"We work with millions of small businesses every day and the greatest barrier to success in the current climate remains a limited access to the capital required for growth. We fully support the government's efforts to encourage a greater flow of financing with its £95m fund for small business grants. It was particularly pleasing to hear the Prime Minister's pledge to help SMEs "strike out abroad", and ambition to get an additional 100,000 SMEs exporting - underpinning the importance of international trade for the growth prospects of UK start-ups and smaller businesses. The UK is poised to take advantage of a growing global export market, and the new initiative is a positive step towards accelerating international growth for SMEs. We are seeing this at Alibaba.com, with 32,000 new small businesses joining us every month to source and sell overseas.
"It is critical that small businesses receive the support and practical help they need, which is why we will be working with the Government to provide relevant data on current export volumes and supporting a week long schedule of ‘Go Global' events taking place during Global Entrepreneurship Week. We hope this will offer small business owners the information and inspiration they need to enter new and profitable markets."
