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This piece of news will be welcomed by students all over the country. The DTI has recently awarded �52 million to a number of universities under the third round of the Higher Education Innovation Fund or HEIF. The goal of the awards is to aid in building closer ties between business and institutions that offer higher education. One of the projects that will share in the 52 million pounds funding handout are initiatives whose goal is to boost the number of entrepreneurs, establish a UK creative industry in China and to target the early signs of disease. The DTI has awarded ...


Small businesses seem to be taking a lot of unnecessary hits of late, and they are already feeling the effects of this “injustice.” It seems the government is not yet content with just hitting businesses with an endless list of legislation and then tying them up with red tape. Now it looks like small business employers will be forced to make contributions to a new National Pensions Savings Scheme or NPSS. An employee can decide not to participate in the NPSS but with the sheer apathy of most employees it is believed that most will choose to remain ...


Based on what a group of business leaders have discussed in a recent gathering, a comprehensive reform in the tax system is the most effective solution to the problem of tax avoidance. According to a recently conducted comprehensive study on tax avoidance, the Institute of Directors (IoD) has signified its advocacy for the redesign of the entire tax system in order to remove the current artificial boundaries between things that are considered as close commercial substitutes. The employers’ organisation has been insisting that a swift action on the problem is absolutely needed what with taxpayers getting more and ...


The recent decision of Prime Minister Tony Blair to reshuffle his cabinet has been hit by an interest group, saying that the move has once again ignored the welfare of small businesses. The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has maintained that the decision has been detrimental for businessmen and business owners who own small businesses. They particularly cite the reshuffling of the Department of Trade and Industry but overlooking the fact that the position for Small Firms Minister has remained vacant. FPB Chief Executive Nick Goulding said that he thinks what has happened is another case illustrating the ...


A pressure group is strongly urging the government to finally remove the big headache posed by confusing and time consuming tax returns. According to the Forum of Private Business (FPB), through its Chief Executive Nick Goulding, “It’s time to make tax returns less taxing. Our research shows that small business is left spending valuable time completing forms that they find confusing and over-complicated.” Goulding asserts that it is clear that not enough effort is being done in order to give assistance to small businesses in trying to understand what their role and responsibilities are when it comes to filing ...


According to the accountants and business advisers at BDO Stoy Hayward, UK economic growth is expected to grow stronger in the second half of 2006. The report, which was included in the most recent BDO Business Trends report, shows that a there is an increase in business confidence both in the short-term and the long-term. There is an expected growth of 3.4 per cent for the third quarter of 2006. This is compared to the 2.4 per cent posted in the last quarter of 2005. These positive numbers are likely to give tremendous benefit to the UK economy especially later this ...


A survey by the Department of Trade and Industry has determined that majority of labour unions across the United Kingdom are in favor of some form of mobility arrangements in the workplace. Such arrangements include work-at-home, field-work, or other telecommuting set-ups. Companies’ uptake of telecommuting arrangements with employees has been up the past few years because of better availability and lower prices of laptop computers, and dropping prices of Internet connectivity. Residential broadband connections, and even free wireless Internet in public places enable employees to work on their inputs and outputs from outside of the office, and then submit these ...


It used to be that when an item is “made in Taiwan,” it’s a cheap knock-off that’s bound to break down after a few uses or a short period of time. Now, however, Taiwan is at the forefront of technological innovation, with development of customer-grade and high-end computer systems. For instance, did you know that majority of the laptop computers shipped worldwide were made in Taiwan by little-known—but very large—production companies that manufacture computers to specification by their American or European clients? This only means one thing: in the business of offshoring, “cheaper” doesn’t always translate to “lower quality.” ...


Call centers in Eastern Europe? Program coding tasks in India? Transcription and bookkeeping in Southeast Asia? These are all offshoots of the current trends in offshoring today, where almost anything can be outsourced anywhere in the world, from products created at less cost to services done at lower labor prices. What else has made all this possible but technology? Efficient shipping and logistics systems, such as those of big-name logistics companies have made possible just-in-time delivery of supplies and raw materials. High-capacity broadband networks have enabled people to send and receive large amounts of data—including voice, documents, and other information—over a ...


Business process offshoring is basically an offshoot of the “comparative advantage” argument in international economics, where countries that can produce output at lower costs usually get the deal. And lately, this has been true for developing countries, where companies' business processes—including customer contact centers, programming, bookkeeping, and data management—are usually outsourced. What’s great is that the cost of offshoring these business processes is definitely lower than what one would expect to pay in more developed countries, with higher costs of living and higher overheads. Another concern of those against offshoring is the quality of work. Some would argue that ...


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