International

Our International Vision is to be a leading city-region in the UK and globally and an international influencer in green and digital. Supporting Greater Manchester to become a place where everyone can live a good life, growing up, getting on and growing old in a greener, fairer more prosperous city-region

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority will work with partners across the city-region to deliver on this shared vision, by coordinating our activity around four shared international ambitions.

Raise the profile of Greater Manchester as a welcoming, vibrant and diverse city-region with a strong cultural, sport and place offer, continuing the work to make our city-region a great place to visit, invest and study.
Work with partners nationally and internationally to leverage the benefits of internationalisation and deliver on our economic vision by increasing trade, attracting foreign direct investment, and fostering cross-border international partnerships to support the creation of better jobs and good employment to build a more prosperous, fairer and globally competitive city-region.
Position Greater Manchester at the heart of the UK’s global competitiveness and forefront of innovation with world-leading strengths in Digital, Health Innovation, Advanced Materials, Manufacturing and Low Carbon Technology, driving investment in these sectors and improving our ability to turn research in to solutions that are shared with the world.
Work with partners across the world to achieve our carbon neutrality by 2038, helping to accelerate the UK’s and global transition to net zero by sharing our expertise, learning from others, and working with the world’s most innovative companies.

Greater Manchester International Strategy

Published in 2022, the Greater Manchester International Strategy sets out how Greater Manchester will work with national government and partners locally and internationally to deliver on its international vision, focusing efforts on eight international priorities – Trade, Investment, Research and Innovation, The Visitor Economy, International Students, Global Perception and Reputation, Connectivity and City-region Diplomacy.

This strategy builds on our previous International Strategy, published in 2020, a one-year refresh addressing the immediate issues caused by the pandemic, whilst simultaneously recognising the pivotal role of cross-border cooperation and internationalisation more broadly in the crisis response.

Whilst the one-year refresh faced an almost unrecognisable world to that of Greater Manchester’s first International Strategy in 2017, this most recent refresh, confronts many of the same challenges as its predecessor as well as builds on progress made since 2017.

Greater Manchester International Strategy (PDF, 9.8MB)

Greater Manchester International Strategy Executive Summary (PDF, 3.5MB)

The Greater Manchester International Strategy and Executive Summary documents are partially compliant with WCAG 2.1AA. We aim to make accessible documents available by 31 August 2022.

Greater Manchester International Dashboard

A breakdown of facts and figures monitoring Greater Manchester’s international connections such as export data, investment figures, international student and tourist numbers as well as research partnerships can be found on the Greater Manchester International Dashboard.

Greater Manchester International Dashboard (Tableau)