BRITISH finance minister Jeremy Hunt stated on Thursday he desires the London Stock Exchange to change into the Nasdaq of Europe, attracting tech firms to assist create “the next Silicon Valley”.
Britain is reforming its monetary sector in a bid to stay globally aggressive as UK tech firms like chip designer Arm Holdings select to record in New York. London’s monetary sector has additionally been largely lower off from the European Union as a consequence of Brexit.
“I would say that the big opportunity that we have in front of us is to be the world’s next Silicon Valley,” Hunt informed TheCityUK’s annual dinner in London.
“We want the London Stock Exchange to become Europe’s Nasdaq,” he stated, referring to the US inventory change that has change into a world magnet for tech firms.
“I think we will get those companies listing here in due course,” Hunt stated.
Creating a Silicon Valley in Britain could be related in affect to the “Big Bang” reforms in finance in the course of the Nineteen Eighties that helped London change into a high monetary centre, he stated.
Such ambition is underpinned by Britain having the most effective universities and largest monetary sector exterior the United States, Hunt stated.
Just over a 12 months in the past Hunt proposed the “Edinburgh Reforms”, a package deal of measures to replace and ease monetary guidelines now {that a} post-Brexit Britain not has to adjust to EU legal guidelines, although the bloc has rolled out related rule modifications as properly.
Lawmakers have stated the affect of the Edinburgh Reforms thus far has been a “damp squib” and have urged regulators to hurry up their introduction.
“I think they’re progressing pretty well,” Hunt stated.
But if Britain is to stay one of the engaging nations on the earth and change into a “dynamo economy” for worldwide traders, it will need to have essentially the most aggressive enterprise taxes, he stated.
“My priority is to bring down the tax burden,” Hunt stated. REUTERS
Source: www.businesstimes.com.sg”