HM Treasury News Release 

196/98                               19 November 1998
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UK-GERMAN WORKING GROUP ON JOB CREATION AND ENTERPRISE

Job creation and enterprise is the focus of a new joint working
group announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and
German Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine today.

Welcoming the agreement to the joint working group of UK and German
finance ministry officials reached at the Downing Street meeting,
their first since the election of the new German Government, Mr
Brown said

      "Our meeting was extremely productive. We discussed a wide
      range of issues, and it is clear that we share a common
      agenda for promoting growth and employment. We have agreed
      that we should use every opportunity to intensify co-
      operation between us.

      "Our officials are already in regular, close touch. We have
agreed, in particular 
      that we should look together at what more we can do to
      promote job creation and enterprise in our economies. We
      have decided to establish a joint working group to study
      these issues and report back to us next year. This group
      will complement the work of the group set up by Bodo Hombach
      and Peter Mandelson.

      "We can learn much from each other in terms of improving
      economic performance, for example, in raising UK
      productivity towards German levels. This points to increased
      dialogue, to ensure that good practice is shared. The
      establishment of this working group is an important first
      step in this process."


NOTES FOR EDITORS
                                                                
1.    At their meeting on 2 November, Prime Minister Tony Blair
      and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed the establishment of
      a bilateral working group on the 'Third Way', headed by Head
      of the German Chancellery Bodo Hombach andUK Secretary of
      State for Trade and Industry Peter Mandelson.

                                                                

# = pounds sterling