| Admin History | In 1966, the Financial Advisory Panel on Exports, which had acted as a sponsor for the British National Export Concil (BNEC), appointed the Committee on Invisible Exports to examine the 'invisible' element in Britain's balance of payments and to consider means of promoting invisible exports. The Committee's report, entitled 'Britain's invisible earnings', was published on 19 Oct 1967. One of the recommendations of the report was that a permanent body should be created to monitor the field of invisible exports and promote invisible earnings nationally and abroad. Following this recommendation, the Bank of England and the BNEC jointly set up the new permanent Committee on Invisible Exports (COIE), whose first meeting was held on 13 Mar 1968. After the creation of the COIE, the Financial Advisory Panel on Exports was dissolved.
Membership of COIE was composed of representatives from professional and commercial bodies, as well as representatives from the Treasury (HMT), the Board of Trade and the Central Statistics Office. The Bank of England would also be represented and would provide secretarial support for the Committee, as well as providing a venue for the majority of meetings. (information taken from file 7A6/1). COIE was re-named the British Invisible Exports Council (BIEC) at the end of 1983.
In March 1989, a working party was set up by the Finance and General Purposes Committee (UK Parliament) to review the position and effectiveness of the BIEC, chaired by Peter Cooke. The Cooke Report was completed at the end of May 1989. Following the Cooke recommendations, in 1989 the BIEC was merged with the City Communications Centre (CCC). The CCC had originally been set up as a body independent from the BIEC, to address the perceived misunderstanding of the role of the City in financing industry. A further review of the role of the BIEC was undertaken by Sir Michael Franklin in March 1990 (a copy of the Cooke Report can be found in file 7A6/26; notes relating to the Franklin Report can be found in file 7A6/29).
The series is also referred to as 'British Invisible Exports Council (BIEC): main Council meetings'. |