Britain has unique advantages, but they're worthless if it isn't the most attractive place to invest

These schemes are building confidence in British industry and innovation. This was reflected in some of the major acquisitions that have dominated headlines already this year – $1bn (£590m) invested in DeepMind and Natural Motion and a major flotation for health-tech company, Circassia – firmly placing British business on the global stage.

However, further significant international investment will only materialise if the right infrastructure is in place.

To ensure that Britain remains an attractive investment target, domestic advancements in research and development, progressive green technology and other new technologies – such as additive manufacturing and automation technologies – must be championed.

These are the technologies of tomorrow and if the UK can continue to make headway in them, it will ensure investment continues to come to our shores. And these are the technologies that will ensure the UK maintains its competitive advantage. More jobs will be created, greater regional growth achieved and the UK’s trade deficit reduced.

The UK is already doing well at inventing new products and leading the way in many of these new industries. Not only this, we excel in longer-established industries such as manufacturing cars – and can still proudly hold our title as the founding fathers and continued deliverers of excellence in these sectors.

Just look at the quality that comes out of Jaguar Land Rover – the Range Rover Evoque being developed for export across the globe – or the Nissan plant in Sunderland, the most productive of its kind across the globe. We should be proud these innovations are developing on UK soil.

To help champion UK entrepreneurship and innovation around the world, the International Festival for Business which opens in Liverpool today, will run for the next 50 days.

During the Festival I will be speaking at the UK Warehousing Conference on the importance of nimble supply chains within manufacturing; this is just one of more than 200 events bringing together some of the pioneers of British industry and showcasing the UK internationally.

The Festival will highlight the vast, still largely untapped, potential for investment outside of London and the South East.

Whilst London has rightly earned its role as a financial powerhouse, the capital accounts for around 43pc of all FDI – a disproportionately high figure. And, with the Government looking to accelerate regional investment through its enterprise zones and city deals, now is the time for international investors to capitalise.

Hull is not the only regional city to hold hidden opportunity – Manchester attracted £800m of investment from Beijing into their 'Airport City’ and Preston has secured £393m in recent direct foreign investment.

But the speed of development is fast, with the technologies of tomorrow fast becoming the technologies of yesterday. For this reason, the UK must not slacken the pace.

As a nation, we have fallen down historically by under-investing in industry; hence we are playing catch-up, falling behind other powerhouses around the world, including Germany, Japan, the US and China. We need to get better at deploying productivity-enhancing technologies, such as automation, to make manufacturing more competitive. We also need to increase the skills base for industry, investing in our young people at the age of 14 so that they can understand and deploy emerging technologies of the future.

Significant improvement is needed to implement patents and innovations swiftly and effectively into our factories’ processes and products. The HVM Catapult network is designed for this but, if we are to catch up in the global manufacturing race, we must collaborate much more with other nations.

Siemens is working together with UK HVM Catapult to bring the first industry 4.0 demonstrator to the UK. It will be a living laboratory; a facility that remotely places tailored orders for customised, assembled components in real time.

#Set to open this summer, it is fully connected to a demonstrator in Germany, allowing us collaboratively to develop the technology for UK-based manufacturers. These innovations - developed and tested in a virtual world - can be applied to the future of our factories.

Ultimately, what matters is the flexibility and adaptability of the economy. Firms will invest in an economy that is built to adapt to change.

The UK boasts many unique attributes that make it a great place to do business. It is the home of the international language of business and sits halfway between East and West, making it a perfect gateway for global trade.

To deliver on the promise of these unique attributes, Britain must now provide the most attractive investment environment as possible through continual development of new technologies. If it can do so, the possibilities are vast.

Juergen Maier is Managing Director of Siemens UK & Ireland and an Ambassador for the International Festival for Business (www.ifb2014.com).

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