UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) has teamed up with Barclays in an initiative aimed at boosting UK trade through a pledge to support 15,000 new exporters by 2020.

They will work around various focus areas: training and development support for exporters’ digital transformation; co-operation on trade missions and export summits; availability of a UKTI medium-sized business advisor to Barclays clients; exchange of information; support of networking opportunities within the UK supply chain; joint promotion of the UK as an investment destination and of the ‘Exporting is Great’ campaign.

Additionally, the UKTI and Barclays will collaborate to identify trade opportunities in Africa, where the bank believes UK businesses could perform £3.6bn-worth of exports by 2020, up from £1.2bn currently.

The partnership has been welcomed by the UK minister for trade and investment, Lord Maude of Horsham. “Government and private sector co-operation is at the heart of our approach to increasing UK exports. Working together we can create a more vibrant export support marketplace to help small and medium-sized businesses to flourish and grow,” he says.

Catherine Raines, chief executive of UKTI, adds: “I am delighted we will be working together with Barclays, which will lead to 15,000 more companies working abroad in 2020. Pooling our professional advice for companies is a powerful offer and will increase the amount of support for exporters available.”