Brown seeks to reassure small firms

Taking a long-term view, the Prime Minister said Britain was "well placed" to take advantage of opportunities from an expected doubling in size of the economy over the next 20 years.

Mr Brown's comments came as he addressed more than 100 heads of small and medium sized businesses, alongside Business Secretary Peter Mandelson and Skills Secretary John Denham at the Kent Science Park, close to Sittingbourne in Kent.

Outlining the Government's evolving response to the credit crisis, Mr Brown said "a global problem needs a global solution".

However, he pledged that new domestic measures unveiled for SMEs would effectively aid their pressing problems of cash flow, access to finance and training for staff.

He said: "We support free trade and an open international economy and if we can improve our basic skills, I think we are well placed to take advantage of the opportunities that arise as the economy doubles in size over the next 20 years.

"But we have to get through the problems we face today. That's why we will do whatever it takes to move things forward, in many cases that means working with other countries to make the changes necessary.

"Unless we stabilise and improve the global economy people will not have confidence in the system that they should have in the years to come."

Mr Brown told assembled businessmen and women that industry was now seeing the "teething" problems of globalisation following a decade of growth.

The economy, he said, faced a trio of challenges, primarily the credit crunch, the global restructuring of manufacturing jobs eastwards to China and pressure on commodities and resources such as oil. He said: "We have a global financial system now where there are global flows of capital all around the world, but we don't have anything other than a national way of supervising global flows."