Some of York's newest technology-led businesses are already becoming significant players on the world stage.

These are the lifeblood for the city's future. They are home-grown and more likely to stay and develop in York.

Too many of our present (and recent) large businesses and business leaders have no real allegiance to the city. Their continuing presence is solely determined by their business needs, often decided in some far-off board room.

We need to attract visitors to come and see us, so that they can decide whether York is a location with which they can do business. Today's tourist may well be tomorrow's inward investor. It was useful, therefore, to hear the views of three of York's leaders responsible for international links.

First was Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of York Tourism Bureau, who said: "As a short break destination York is in an international market place and it is increasingly important for us to offer the sort of experience that appeals to visitors from overseas.

"Our priorities are to attract high-spending visitors to stay longer. Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium continue to be very important European markets for us. With the advent of a change in travel visas for Chinese nationals and growing economies in Eastern Europe, we will work with Visit Britain to ensure that York takes advantage of these emerging markets."

Denise Dodd, acting chief executive of york-england.com, said: "We have to be more aware of the significance of smaller companies to the strength of the local economy. The US remains the single largest investor in the UK, but new investment is the result of expansion of existing sites."

She also pointed out the ongoing risk of international or global companies pulling out, such as recently happened with the Kraft/Terry's decision.

"To counter this, we are increasingly working with smaller companies from countries such as Scandinavia, Australia, China and India - the countries where new investors are coming from.

"We believe that this sort of investment is much more robust than some of the large scale investment. In this

context we work closely with Science City York and the university to focus on quality jobs in targeted industrial sectors.

"China is a key target for both us and Yorkshire Forward (YF), who have opened an office in China specifically to attract inward investors to the region. Working closely with YF we have developed the China Incubator Product, which is a Science Park-based proposition, targeted at Chinese companies who want to be close to the university."

University of York vice-chancellor Brian Cantor now regularly travels overseas, to explain how the city has built a world-class university so rapidly. He has recently received invitations from the Mayor of Shanghai, the Government of Taiwan and the Chancellor of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

He said: "The global research projects we are involved in are perhaps the most exciting aspect of our international links. They are not the most visible - we can see international students in York, and our tourists and new businesses setting up.

"But in the future, people will say it was in York that the bio-renewable fuels to replace oil were identified, where the mystery of TS Eliot's Wasteland was solved, and where the civil servants of newly-emerging democracies were trained.

"The city will be as well known for its contribution to knowledge in the future, as it is for its beautiful heritage now."

Updated: 10:21 Wednesday, November 30, 2005