Business Leaders Focus on Barking & Dagenham Enterprise
Monday, 03 December 2007
Representatives of business organisations from throughout the country will visit Barking & Dagenham next week (Wednesday 12 December) to see for themselves the pioneering work being carried out in the borough to promote regeneration through encouraging and promoting enterprise.
The visit by the National Business Broker Network has been organised by Business in the Community and will be hosted by Barking & Dagenham Enterprise (BDE). BDE is the organisation which spearheads the enterprise drive in the borough through the management of over 30 enterprise – related projects.
Chris Oliver, chairman of BDE says:
“We are delighted to welcome the members of the Business Broker Network. We are opening up new opportunities for people and businesses and providing encouragement, financial support and advice where it is needed through the enterprise-related programnmes and projects that we have introduced across the borough.
Susan Hinchcliffe, Business Broker Network Manager, says:
“We are looking forward to seeing the interesting projects that are being run by BDE in the borough. The members of our network are all involved with their local businesses to support neighbourhood renewal objectives and it is important that we all listen and learn from other parts of the country that have the same objectives.”
The 20-strong party, which will be accompanied by officials from the Department of Communities and Local Government, will receive presentations from leaders of Lifeline, whose members visit cafes, surgeries and other venues to encourage residents to acquire new skills and training and from the Barking & Dagenham Small Business Centre. The Centre provides business training, advice and finance to people seeking to establish or expand a business.
Both organisations are being funded through the Government’s Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI). Barking & Dagenham is one of the first ten local authorities nationally to be awarded funds from this programme and the only Thames Gateway borough to be successful.
The business visitors will also visit the award-winning Barking Learning Centre, and the sites of the two new Enterprise Centres which are scheduled to open in 2010. In the course of the tour of the borough the group will also will see at first hand the redevelopments taking place at Linton Road and Dagenham Heathway. They will be introduced to students on a bursary scheme and visit the City Learning Centre at Robert Clack School, home to the satellite studio of Enterprise Radio, the recently-launched local on-line radio station, one of whose sponsors is BDE.