Economic Development Projects

For too long, Britain’s strengths have been undervalued. We’re home to some of the world’s top universities, the third-trillion dollar tech sector, and home to some of the world’s leading start-ups. If we want stronger, long-term economic growth, we need to back talent and those who are turning ideas into jobs, exports, and global success stories.  That’s why we’ve set out a clear plan to support entrepreneurs and high-growth firms. First, the British Business Bank will invest £5 billion in scaling UK companies, crowding in private capital and supporting firms through the high-risk “Valley of Death” stage so more businesses can grow, hire, and export from the UK. Second, Innovate UK’s new £130 million Growth Catalyst will provide grants and hands-on support to cutting-edge science and technology companies. A previous version of this programme turned £156 million of public backing into £1.66 billion of follow-on investment, a tenfold return that shows the power of targeted support. We’re also boosting UK Research and Innovation with a £7 billion funding package to help more promising firms bring breakthroughs to market.  And through targeted scale-up programmes, we’re ensuring high-growth companies can access the capital they need without feeling they have to leave the UK. Finally, by doubling eligibility for key schemes like the Enterprise Management Incentive and raising investment limits under the Enterprise Investment Scheme, the first time in 15 years, we’re making it easier for founders to attract talent and investment, and to build globally competitive businesses here at home. Yesterday I met entrepreneurs at Number 10 to discuss how these changes will help more UK companies succeed, and how we're working to grow our economy for the future.

🚀 Maharashtra just raised the bar and rolled out a first-of-its-kind GCC #Policy 2025, designed to accelerate high-value global operations and position Maharashtra as the most competitive hub for technology, R&D, analytics, and enterprise innovation. 🌐 What Maharashtra Is Aiming For * 400 new GCCs by 2030 * 4 lakh high-skill jobs across tech, finance, design, engineering & AI * ₹50,600 crore in global investments * Strong push for Tier-2 expansion across Nagpur, Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar 🏢 Who’s Eligible? Open to: > Registered companies, LLPs, JVs, and trusts setting up GCCs Centres delivering global-facing work: > Tech development, R&D, AI, cybersecurity, analytics, design, finance, product engineering, and business operations Not eligible: x Pure BPOs, call centres, sales/marketing teams, or local servicing units Zones: Zone I: Mumbai & Pune Metros Zone II: All other cities (with higher incentives to boost regional growth) 💰 High-Value Incentives Designed for GCC Scale-Up 1️⃣ Capital Subsidy 20% of eligible fixed capital investment Benefits up to: ₹10 Cr (Small) → ₹100 Cr (Mega/Ultra) 2️⃣ Rental Assistance Up to 5 years 10% support in Zone I, 20% in Zone II Eligibility capped at ₹1–4 Cr depending on GCC size 3️⃣ Payroll Subsidy For employees earning > ₹1 lakh/month 40% subsidy in Zone I, 50% in Zone II Up to 100 employees, capped at ₹50,000 per month +10% diversity bonus for centres with ≥50% women or PwD talent 4️⃣ R&D Incentives Mandatory 2% of FCI allocated to R&D 25% reimbursement of eligible spend (up to ₹2 Cr) +10% for collaboration with Maharashtra universities/research institutes 5️⃣ Internship & Talent Support Under CM Yuva Prashikshan Yojana ₹10,000/month per intern (up to 100 interns) ⚙️ Non-Fiscal Enablers That Truly Move the Needle 1. Industry status for GCCs → Operate 24×7×365 2. Priority land allotment — 10% plots reserved for GCC Parks 3. Plug-and-play workspaces via PPP 4. Single-window operations through MAITRI GCC Facilitation Cell 5. Guaranteed 24×7 power & water, plus green energy access 6. Incentives for LEED/IGBC buildings & carbon-neutral practices 🔧 Governance & Funding Total allocation: ₹11,702 crore Deployment via MIDC & MAITRI, with periodic audits for transparency 📌 Why This Matters This policy positions Maharashtra as a future-ready global hub, combining strong fiscal sops with infrastructure readiness, governance clarity, and a decisive push for innovation and inclusion. If you’re advising, expanding, or leading GCC transformations — this could be one of the most consequential frameworks of the decade. 💬 If you have any questions or you want to understand impact for your organization, drop a comment. 🔁 Repost to help more leaders navigate this game-changing policy and avail the benefits. #GCC #GCCPROS #Maharashtra

Exciting news for anyone who sends or receives money internationally! The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has joined forces with Project Nexus, linking UPI with 4 ASEAN countries. The Bank for International Settlements – BIS and partners yesterday announced that they have completed the comprehensive blueprint for phase three of Project Nexus. India is joining the party with Phase four, which will see India's Reserve Bank and its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) - the world's largest instant payment system (IPS) - joining forces with Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Plus, Indonesia's keeping a close eye on things as a special observer. So, What's the big deal, you ask? Imagine sending money across borders as easily as you split a bill with friends. That's the future Project Nexus is building, and it's about to get a whole lot bigger! Curious about what this means for you, your business, and the future of cross-border payments? Let's break it down... What is Project Nexus? • Project Nexus is an initiative by the BIS Innovation Hub to create a standardized global network for connecting multiple domestic IPS across countries. This cross-border network could enable international payments to happen in second, making international transactions faster, more cost effective, efficient, seamless and promote transparency and safety across borders. • It seeks to standardize the way domestic IPS link in multiple countries via a blueprint Nexus provides. • To connect 60 IPS via Nexus would require 60 technical integration projects (one between each IPS and Nexus) compared with 1,770 bilateral initiatives. This reduces the work required by over 95%. Aim and Objectives The primary aim of Project Nexus is to create a unified network that allows instant payment systems from different countries to connect through a single, standardized interface. The inclusion of UPI represents a massive leap towards global financial integration. This expansion: • Increases the user base amplifying the potential reach and impact of Nexus • More countries joining means a more extensive network, leading to better global connectivity. • Central banks and IPS operators working together foster innovation and shared best practices. The Nexus Scheme Organisation (NSO) will be established to manage the Nexus scheme. The NSO will be owned by the central banks and/or IPS operators in participating countries, ensuring that the governance structure is aligned with the public interest and the goal of achieving instant cross-border payments at scale. This entity will be responsible for: • Governance • Standardization • Scalability Nexus is a big step towards a more interconnected financial world, backed by central banks for security and stability. It's an exciting time for finance professionals, businesses, and individuals alike as we move towards a more connected and efficient global economy. #FinTech #ProjectNexus #FastPaymentSystems #InstantPayments #CrossBorderPayments

This map is a wake-up call. Just 13 districts, in red—contribute nearly 50% of India’s GDP, while the remaining 692 districts share the other half. Such extreme economic concentration inevitably fuels mass migration, strains urban infrastructure, and erodes the quality of life for millions of workers. If India has to become a truly developed economy, we must decentralise prosperity. What industry and entrepreneurs can do: • Set up manufacturing and services in Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities where land is cheaper, talent is abundant, and operational costs are significantly lower. • Invest in emerging industrial clusters supported by new freight corridors, multi-modal logistics parks, and state incentives. • Promote distributed supply chains so jobs grow closer to where people actually live. • Leverage digital infrastructure, every district is now connected to high-speed fibre, enabling modern businesses anywhere. • Collaborate with state governments on skill hubs, MSME ecosystems, and greenfield industrial parks. Balanced growth is not just economic logic, it is social responsibility. By reducing forced migration, we improve living conditions for workers, reduce pressure on megacities, and build a more harmonious India where prosperity is shared, not concentrated. The next wave of Indian growth will come from the districts we have long ignored. It’s time to expand, decentralise, and build a more equitable economic map for India.

African exporters don't need more "capacity building." We need shared cold storage, regional quality labs, and trade finance cooperatives. Here's the blueprint. I've sat through enough donor-funded workshops on "building export capacity." I stopped attending. They always focus on training farmers—beekeeping techniques, organic practices, cooperative management. Please don't DM/invite me to these events. That's fine. But it's not the bottleneck. Accelerators fund useless programs without writing cheques. NGOs fund outdated trainings. Donors fund studies that no one is reading. Governments fund conferences for the elites and cameras. But nobody's funding the boring, essential infrastructure that would 10x African export capacity. Here's what actually limits African superfoods exports: 1. No Shared Cold Storage Honey, moringa, hibiscus—these products need temperature-controlled storage to maintain quality. Most cooperatives can't afford private cold storage facilities ($50,000-$150,000 investment). So products degrade. Quality drops. Buyers reject shipments. Solution: Regional cold storage hubs shared by multiple cooperatives—managed by aggregators or trade associations, accessible at per-kg rates. 2. No Accessible Quality Labs Western buyers need lab reports. But ISO-accredited labs are concentrated in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Accra—urban centers far from production regions. Farmers in rural Tanzania or DRC can't easily access testing. Solution: Mobile lab units or regional satellite facilities offering affordable batch testing ($200-500 instead of $2,000-5,000). Fund through trade development programs. 3. No Trade Finance for SMEs Exporters face brutal cash flow: farmers need payment at harvest, but buyers pay Net 30-90 days after delivery. Banks won't lend without collateral. Microfinance charges 18-30% interest. Solution: Trade finance cooperatives or guarantee funds specifically for agricultural exports—offering 6-8% interest with receivables as collateral. 4. No Aggregation Coordination Platforms Buyers need 5 tons of moringa. No single cooperative can supply that. But if 15 cooperatives coordinated through a digital platform, they could collectively fulfill orders. Solution: Digital aggregation platforms (think Uber for agricultural supply)—matching buyer demand with distributed producer capacity in real-time. 5. No Shared Compliance Infrastructure Organic certifications cost $12,000 per cooperative. But if 10 cooperatives pool resources and certify through a regional body, per-cooperative cost drops to $3,000-4,000. Solution: Certification consortiums where cooperatives share audit costs, documentation systems, and renewal fees. At Lubembo Co., we're building some of this privately—shared storage in Bandundu (DRC), lab relationships for affordable testing in Nairobi, aggregation coordination across cooperatives. But we're one company. This needs systemic investment. #TradeInfrastructure #AfricanExports #Lubembo #Invest

The recent news that both OpenAI and Anthropic are opening offices in Zurich reminded me of Michael Porter's seminal 1998 Harvard Business Review article "Clusters and the New Economics of Competition". In it, Porter explored clusters — geographic areas that become unusually successful in specific industries. Porter observed that despite expectations that globalization and faster communication would reduce the importance of location, the opposite occurred. The global economy continues to be dominated by clusters - geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in particular fields. Zurich exemplifies this perfectly. ETH Zurich, consistently ranked among the world's top technical universities, has been a cornerstone of technical innovation for decades. Google's Zurich office, recently celebrating over 20 years and home to ~6,000 employees, has grown into their largest engineering hub in Europe. This has helped catalyze a broader tech ecosystem, with Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Nvidia, and numerous startups establishing significant engineering presence in the region. Why do such clusters thrive? Porter's framework explains how they create a multiplier effect where companies can gain the benefits of scale without sacrificing flexibility: Talent Pools: ETH Zurich provides a constant stream of top-tier technical talent, while the presence of major tech companies attracts experienced professionals globally. This creates a deep, self-reinforcing talent pool that benefits companies of all sizes. Knowledge Networks: The proximity of academic research at ETH, Big Tech R&D, and startup innovation creates dense networks of technical knowledge and market intelligence. This environment is particularly crucial for AI development, where advances often emerge from the intersection of academic research and industrial applications. Ecosystem Benefits: Companies operate more efficiently through better access to specialized suppliers, institutions, and coordinated activities with related firms. The mature ecosystem built around Google's two-decade presence has created infrastructure and support services that new entrants like OpenAI and Anthropic can instantly leverage. Most intriguingly, once a cluster forms, it often enters a self-reinforcing growth cycle, especially when supported by local institutions and healthy competition. As the cluster expands, so does its influence on policy and institutions. Zurich's evolution from academic excellence to established tech hub and now emerging AI cluster showcases Porter's framework in action. The arrival of OpenAI and Anthropic suggests this cycle is entering an exciting new phase. Links in the comments

The appetite for cross-border trade has never been stronger - and the numbers prove it. EU-based small businesses selling on Amazon reached €40 billion in sales in 2025, a record (and a number we’ve released for the first time). Last year, the over 100,000 EU-based SMEs that sell on Amazon generated €17 billion in cross-border exports, while intra-EU exports grew to €13.5 billion. I'm proud of what these figures say about the European Single Market's potential. But don't take my word for it: the entrepreneurs driving these numbers have stories of their own which you can read on our update below - and they're clear about what's holding them back. The obstacle is well known: compliance costs are consuming 25–30% of operating expenses for many SMEs, as businesses navigate 27 different VAT regimes. At the same time, some non-EU sellers exploit loopholes that allow them to skip VAT obligations entirely. That's a structural disadvantage built into the rules themselves. The solutions are concrete: → Extend the Deemed Supplier mechanism so marketplaces collect VAT on behalf of all sellers, regardless of origin - closing the loophole and levelling the field → Harmonise compliance requirements across Member States → Simplify - and then simplify again The European Council's endorsement of the Single Market Roadmap - with a commitment to eliminating key trade barriers by March 2027 - is a welcome signal. What matters now is speed. Europe's entrepreneurs are ready to compete globally. The question is whether the rules will catch up before the opportunity passes. What barriers have you seen holding back cross-border growth in Europe? I'd welcome the conversation.

A New Frontier in Cross-Border Payments 💡 The adoption of immediate, faster, or real-time payments (RTP) has witnessed remarkable progress over the past two decades. As of 2023, more than 80 countries have either implemented or are in the process of deploying domestic RTP infrastructures. While the degree of adoption, platform architecture, and user experience may vary across different markets, countries such as India, Thailand, and Brazil have embraced RTP systems as the new standard for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions and are gaining popularity in peer-to-merchant (P2M) payments as well 🌐 With RTP platforms maturing and introducing new functionalities, these payment solutions have become more user-friendly and have expanded to support a wide range of use-cases. They are now seamlessly integrated into a wide array of applications, ranging from banking apps and digital wallets to super-apps, online marketplaces, and payment automation platforms 🤖 Crucially, RTP infrastructures have played a pivotal role in addressing the needs of previously unbanked or underbanked populations, facilitating transactions between bank accounts and digital wallets, and contributing to the gradual reduction in cash usage. Moreover, they have been catalysts for innovation, bringing transformative changes across the payments industry ecosystem and its value chain. The global success of RTP systems has sparked a new trend: the emergence of over 50 initiatives aimed at establishing cross-border links between domestic RTP infrastructures. These initiatives leverage the existing user base and industry participants of domestic payment schemes to facilitate cross-border transactions while maintaining a familiar interface and user experience 📱 Examples of such initiatives include bilateral cross-border links in ASEAN markets, ongoing efforts to develop international acceptance for UPI by the National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI), multilateral platforms like Project Nexus by the BIS Innovation Hub in Singapore, and hub-and-spoke platforms such as Buna or AFAQ in the Middle East. Since 2020, these initiatives have gained significant momentum, driven by the endorsement of the G20 and collaboration with international organizations such as the Bank for International Settlements – BIS, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the The World Bank Group (WBG), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). With more than 100 countries actively involved in efforts to link their payment infrastructures, collectively representing around 80% of global GDP, cross-border payments have become a focal point for heads of state and regulators worldwide 🌍 Source: KoreFusion - Strategy Consulting and M&A  - https://t.ly/eWj3s #Innovation #Fintech #Banking #OpenBanking #API #FinancialServices #Payments #InstantPayments #RtP #CrossBorder #Forex

We often talk about “growing sectors” of the economy. Far less often do we talk about building clusters - but we should. A sectoral approach focuses on industries such as tourism, agritech, or film. It asks: how do we support firms through skills, regulation, incentives, and export promotion? A cluster approach focuses on place-based systems of firms, universities, capital, talent, and institutions. It asks: how do we build an ecosystem that makes firms more innovative and productive over time? 🔹Sector policy addresses constraints within industries. 🔹Cluster policy builds the conditions for sustained advantage. New Zealand has flirted with cluster thinking before. In the early 2000s, influenced by Michael Porter’s work, clusters briefly entered policy through initiatives in ICT, biotech, and marine industries. But it did not endure. Cluster policy is hard. It requires coordination across institutions, investment in relationships, and patience over the course of decades. Our system tends to favour discrete initiatives and short funding cycles. Contrast that with Scandinavia. Countries such as Denmark and Finland embedded cluster thinking over decades, building dense institutional linkages and maintaining continuity across policy cycles. The answer is not to choose between the two. We need both: 🔹sector policy to remove barriers and create strategic focus 🔹cluster policy to build the capability systems that sustain innovation The deeper issue is time. Clusters can take decades to form. Capability builds cumulatively. Countries that succeed treat economic development as a long-term system-building, not episodic policy. New Zealand’s economic development challenge is less about a lack of insight and more about sustained follow-through. That was true twenty years ago. It remains true today.

India is building First ever Cross-Border Rail Links with Bhutan! Two connections, Kokrajhar-Gelephu (69 km) and Banarhat-Samtse (20 km). These aren't railways inside Bhutan, they're direct links from Indian territory into Bhutan, connecting them to our 1.5 lakh km network. Bhutan has zero railway infrastructure. We're building cross-border connections from scratch that will be a win-win situation for India and Bhutan. Here's the geography that matters, Bhutan sits between India and China. Our northeastern states connect to mainland India through a corridor that's barely 20 km wide at the narrowest point. One of our most vulnerable geographical features. Bhutan acts as a buffer in that zone, and is very good friends with India. These rail links do two things. Boost Bhutan's economy by connecting them to Indian ports and markets. And create physical infrastructure that makes economic separation impractical. We handle 80% of Bhutan's trade already. And now we're building the actual tracks that bind our economies permanently. The numbers show actual commitment,  ₹4,033 crore for cross-border railways. ₹10,000 crore in development assistance for 2024-2029. Five hydropower projects & one dedicated waterways terminal. Bhutan's hydropower matters for our energy security. Cultural ties through Buddhism matter for people's connections. But geography makes this relationship non-negotiable. The corridor stays vulnerable no matter what we do. But the neighbor providing cover can be strengthened. India🤝Bhutan #India #Bhutan #railway