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This Library Note provides background reading for the debate to be held on Thursday 5 July: “The international competitiveness of UK industry, its success in attracting inward investment and exporting to global markets, and its role in strengthening the United Kingdom’s economy and in job creation”. It considers the most recently published economic data indicating the competitiveness of UK industry, focusing in particular on recent figures for UK exports and foreign inward investment. It also examines the debate about the role UK companies might play in ensuring an economic recovery by the targeting of new markets for trade and inward investment, and the debate as to whether the Government should pursue a more activist industrial strategy.

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