The North West has strengths from manufacturing to e-commerce – and the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

	Area:	14,165 sq km
	Population:	6.9m
	Regional GDP³	£77.6bn
	Exports to EU³	£7.9bn
	Exports outside EU³	£4.7bn
	Unemployment‡	5.4%
	Industrial property cost*	76.3
	Office rental cost**	69.8
	% of exports to Asia/Oceania³	9.2%
	Foreign manufacturing investment²	£701m
	UK manufacturing investment²	£2050m
	R&D expenditure³	£1476m
	Gross Value Added per employee¹	£35,700
	Export value per employee³	£4481
	Average earnings per hour³	£9.70
	³=2000; ‡=Q1,2001; ²=1997; *index: UK=100 (type 3 industrial property Q1 2001); ¹=manufacturing; ** index: UK=100 (type 1 office accommodation Q1 2001)

The North West’s population and regional GDP makes it an economic power greater than some entire European countries. The largest UK region outside London and the South East, its two main cities of Liverpool and Manchester are ringed by a necklace of vigorous smaller cities, towns, new towns and business parks, set in attractive landscapes.

Infrastructure
The region’s strong international links are supported by the Port of Liverpool and Manchester Airport, the biggest outside London. The North West has first-class transport links with the rest of the UK via the M6 motorway and the main West Coast rail line.

Feeder motorways at right angles link Merseyside to the east coast ports of Humberside, by far the most convenient freight routing into Europe, while Liverpool itself is the UK’s premier port for trade with North America and Ireland. One of Europe’s largest deep-sea modern container ports, it boasts the fastest sea link between North America and Europe, able to turn around even the biggest container ships quickly and efficiently. A Euro Rail terminal puts Liverpool’s quayside only 15 hours from Paris. The surrounding Freeport is the UK’s largest and most successful tariff-free zone, with unique logistic advantages.

Opportunities
The year 2002 sees a boost to regional tourism through Manchester’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games and the related tourism promotion under a ‘Fun and Games’ banner. The Northwest Development Agency and regional tourism partners hope to generate £8m in spending for a region blessed with the attractions of the Lake District, Lancashire’s rolling hills and the wide plains of Cheshire.

Much recent inward investment to the North West has concentrated on banking, call centres and shared service centres, including names such as MBNA, QVC, Bristol Myers Squibb, IBM and Avis. PricewaterhouseCoopers recently invested in a Manchester facility, identifying the city as one of Europe’s best shared service locations.

E-commerce and software industries in the region will benefit from an investment by 360 Network in a massive trans-Atlantic fibre-optic cable and UK ring, creating massive bandwidth between the UK, the US and Ireland from a Liverpool entry point. There are also plans for a new high-tech incubator in Warrington, aiming to attract start-ups from the higher-value end of the mobile telecoms spectrum, as well as areas such as Richvoice, mobile intranet/internet access, and customised infotainment multimedia messaging.

Regional biotech strengths have been confirmed by the funding of a north-west Genetic Knowledge Park, aimed at the transfer of the genetic information coming from the genome project to real-world clinical services.

Manufacturing still accounts for 23% of the region’s output – far ahead of the UK average of 18% – and the depth of available manufacturing and specialist skills is exceptional. The North West is the UK’s third largest automotive region, while the Mersey Valley and Cheshire form a leading centre of the UK chemicals industry, responsible for 23% of the UK’s chemical employment and 25% of UK’s chemical output, worth nearly £4bn. The region is also a world-class player in the pharmaceuticals, aerospace and nuclear industries, foods, electronics and IT, and many future-rich sectors.

Nine universities in the region provide an international powerhouse of learning and knowledge development, with many of them closely linked to associated regional business parks and science centres.

Websites:
Northwest Development Agency www.nwda.co.uk
North West bioscience www.bionow.co.uk
North West tourism
www.englandsnorthwest.com