Business and Success
Stories
The 2001 Census highlighted that Asians accounted
for approximately 2.4 million of the total British
population. Yet Asian businesses have contributed
an estimated 10 per cent to the UK’s total GDP,
a highly disproportionate figure to the number of
Asians living in the UK, but a testimony to the Asian
communities of Britain.
Asian businesses are a central part of the economy
and in London alone, there are 15,000 Asian businesses.
Historically Asians have been restricted to low profit
and low growth industries – namely, ethnic retail
and clothing. And the Ethnic Minority Business Forum
2001 estimated that some 60% of all Asian small businesses
were involved in retail.
| Sectors |
Indian |
Pakistani/Bangladeshi |
| |
|
|
| Agriculture and
fishing |
0 |
0 |
| Manufacture |
4.1 |
14 |
| Construction |
0 |
3 |
| Wholesale and retail |
49.4 |
36.6 |
| Hospitality |
8.5 |
10.8 |
| Transport |
8.5 |
0.9 |
| Finance |
5.2 |
0 |
| Business Services |
17.3 |
32.7 |
| Education |
1.6 |
0 |
| Health |
3.3 |
0 |
| Other Community |
2.2 |
2 |
| |
|
|
| Total |
100 |
100 |
London Employer Survey,
1999 (from Play it Right: Asian Creative Industries
in London)
It is clear that Asians are much
more likely to be self-employed and enter more business
based industries. At the heart of the Asian Diaspora
are thrift, hard and honest work, industriousness,
faith (a dependence on God’s will) and self
reliance which all push towards self-employment and
traditional industries.
With closer-knit communities many of the businesses
tend to be linked, supplying their own clothing, catering,
food and so forth. But with more and more younger
generations of Asians taking up more professional
careers, these traditional industries for Asians look
set to decline. An Ethnic Minorities Economic Performance
study by the Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation
Unit (2001) [14] cited: “...the remarkable growth
of this [self employment] sector is likely to lose
its momentum as the next generation of Asians move
into professional careers.”
It is clear that the current generation of Asians
have been more integrated into British society, more
so than their predecessors, and this is another crucial
factor in the success of Asians in business and commerce
and highlights their impact on the economy.
The Annual Asian Xpress Rich List again outlines how
much Asians have expanded in the business world. The
combined wealth of the 300 millionaires featured in
the list stands at an incredible figure of £8.9
billion.
