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 Dear Rachel
As this is the final Chair’s Message of the year I hope you will indulge me and allow me to spend some time saying some very big thank yous. Firstly thank you to you, our members, to all of you who have contributed to the debates, the events, and to the overall continued success of the MWTF. At a time when every minute is precious, your continued contribution is valued immensely. Secondly, but by no means least, I would like to thank the MWTF Board, Peter Mathews, our President, Glenis Poletti our Executive Director, and all our supporters within UKTI.
This past year has not been easy and for some it has been devastating, but one thing is resoundingly clear, that whilst the media may want to revel in disaster, and the politicians are busy putting their own personal finances in order, UK businesses have continued to look at new ways of doing things, continued to look for new opportunities, continued to look for new markets, continued to challenge. The simple truth is that when you are so far down the road, there is only one way to go and that is forward.
In truth there is only one group that will get us out of this recession and that is the business community. So let me make it plain to our current Government and to those who may be to come, if you don’t listen to the voice of business you do so at your peril. We are looking for a government that bases its decisions on an ethos of integrity and transparency, and a government that is not only going to listen but will take action on behalf of the people that have elected them.
Over the past year MWTF has lobbied hard on issues surrounding export credit insurance, the need for greater transparency regarding funding initiatives and the availability of capital funding, to name but a few. Moving forward we will continue to push on these and any other issues that you feel are key in ensuring that economic recovery is not only sustainable, but which will see the UK taking its rightful place as a global lead in international trade.
Again, I thank you all for your support and commit to ensuring that your voices are heard by those who have a responsibility to listen to them.
Deborah Leary OBE
MWTF Chair
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Changes to Cross-border VAT rules represent a significant reform of the VAT regime applying to services and introduce important changes to the intra-EU reporting regime for goods. 
Networking is more important now than ever and it remains a key part of the MWTF’s ethos. We want our members to come together to improve their international trade potential by learning from each other’s experiences.
Following our recent report on this issue we gave exporters another opportunity to have their say, about the increased burden of Export Credit Insurance, at a Q & A session on 1st October. The panel included Adrian Bailey MP, who sits on the Exporting out of Recession Select Committee and Steve Dodgson, Business Group Director of ECGD. 
Despite a very challenging operating environment, eg solutions plc - the Staffordshire based operations management software applications vendor - has achieved significant overseas success in 2009.
