Eastern Europe and Turkey offer opportunities for Yorkshire businesses wishing to trade beyond the main EU markets, a networking event was told.

Delegates to the seventh Export Network event held in Leeds were told that Eastern European economies are catching up with the rest of the EU and believe that trade with the UK can be a stepping stone to greater prosperity – while Turkey is seeking opportunities to build its own its own blue-chip global businesses.

The event is part of the We Are International campaign, an initiative run by Leeds City in partnership with international trade specialists Chamber International, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Yorkshire, Enterprise Europe Network and the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce’s MY Export Hub.

The campaign aims to add £1.6bn to the City Region economy and create thousands of jobs by 2018.

Richard Reese, chief executive of British Romanian Chamber of Commerce, said Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic were far more modern than many people perceive.

He said: “Romania has the fastest internet in Europe and the third-fastest in the world.

“These are all competitive emerging markets forecast to grow at 3% in the coming years – faster than the EU as a whole - and with an affluent population and a keen, hard-working, English-speaking workforce.”

Outlining the support available through the UK Government’s International UK Business Network, he said that although GDPs in East European countries were slightly lower than within the EU, they were rising.

Mr Reese said it was widely accepted that there were too few British products – which are well perceived – in Eastern European countries with particular regard to clothing, textiles and healthcare.

Opportunities existed in manufacturing and engineering, energy, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and life sciences, food and drink, financial and professional services and IT.

He added: “When it comes to trading with Eastern Europe, the UK is not as good at picking the low hanging fruit as France, Germany and Italy. This is an imbalance which needs to be corrected.”

Patrick Ney, director of British Polish Chamber of Commerce, said there could be significant commercial rewards for businesses wishing to create a budget and a focused strategy for trading with Poland.

His chamber and its partners had helped, 2,000 UK businesses trade there in the last two years.

Chris Gaunt, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Turkey, said Turkey was among the world’s biggest markets with a population of 76m – half of whom are aged under 30 – and a labour force of 28m. With an GDP of $188bn, Istanbul’s GDP exceeds that of many EU countries.

He said: “There are 145,000 Turkish entrepreneurs operating in Europe, employing 627,000 people and with €636bn worth of business.

“Turkey is good at supporting other global brands, but they wish to create Turkish global brands and would like to get that support from the UK which they trust and like doing business with.”

The event at the offices of Deloitte in Leeds was also attended by Ghana High Commissioner Victor Smith, a member of his staff, Kofi Addo, and Rwanda High Commissioner Williams Nkurunziza.