Also in the news...
Register as an overseas company with Companies House
You must register an overseas company with Companies House if you want to set up a place of business in the UK.
How to successfully expand your business and set up in the UK
Tell us about your business and we'll give you the official information and data you need, in one place
Foreign Office travel advice updates
Latest travel information for British nationals affected by the situation in the Middle East.
Check if you need a UK visa
You may need a visa to come to the UK to visit, study or work.
Apply to use simplified declarations for imports you entered in your records without authorisation
Choose how you’ll make supplementary declarations for goods that you entered into your own records without authorisation.
Develop your exports in Emerging Europe
The central and eastern Europe(CEE) region offers opportunities for all UK companies ranging from novice to experienced exporters
CEE is up made of 9 markets and over 100 million consumers located in central and eastern Europe.
The CEE markets are just 2 to 3 hours flying time from the UK. The majority are EU regulated and are lower risk then markets further from the UK.
UK exports to Emerging Europe were worth over £15 billion in 2012. This includes services exports valued at £4.1 billion.
What is CEE?
The CEE markets are at differing stages of development, but all offer long-term growth prospects for UK companies. The markets are:
- Austria
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Hungary
- Poland
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
Benefits of doing business in CEE
The markets offer UK companies a number of advantages including:
- ease of developing business relationships as located close to UK with access via large number of budget airlines
- ideal for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on tight budgets
- supply chain opportunities in support of strategically important industries
- opportunities resulting from £150 billion EU funded infrastructure projects
Opportunities
There are opportunities across a range of sectors. These include:
- energy (nuclear, shale gas, conventional and renewables)
- infrastructure (railways, roads, ports and airports, water and urban regeneration)
- healthcare, life sciences and science and technology
- industry and engineering
- services (financial, ICT and engineering)
- retail
- security and defence
