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Businesses and the Regions

Let me reiterate my hon. Friend's point. My experience as an exporter and as someone who has helped UKTI is that the RDAs' approach has fundamentally eroded any concept of UK plc. That approach has meant that this country cannot exercise the muscle that the countries that have maintained a country approach can. For me, that was illustrated by a businessman returning from a mission to China. He said that it had been a disaster, because the Chinese had failed to appreciate the difference between the east and west midlands.