The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will significantly expand the support on offer to Scottish businesses after it announced that new DBT International Trade Advisors are to be hired north of the border.

Once in place, the new Advisors will be responsible for providing tailored, one-to-one guidance and support to Scottish businesses to help them start or expand their exporting journey.

The new resource is intended to complement existing services by expanding the pipeline of exporting companies and should see a further 600-900 companies in Scotland receive help.

Exports Minister Lord Offord was in Greenock today at the former Customs House to begin stakeholder engagement on the structure of the ITA support. While there he hosted a roundtable with SMEs about their exporting journey so far, and discussed how more companies might be encouraged to export using such support.

UK Government Minister for Scotland and Exports Lord Malcolm Offord said:

“This is a significant investment by the UK Government to provide further support to businesses across Scotland.

“Working closely with colleagues at SDI and the Scottish Government, this should significantly increase the capacity of our team to support increased exporting through expanding the pipeline of companies.

“We know what a huge difference accessing international markets can make to a company, and I’m looking forward to continuing the discussions that were started today to ensure as many businesses as possible take advantage of the opportunities that are out there.”

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