Foreign Secretary William Hague’s call for business owners to ‘stop complaining about the economy and work harder’ is pretty unfounded in light of recent statistics.

Hague, in somewhat of an extension of Norman Tebbit’s "on your bike" message to the unemployed in the 1980s, has urged businesses to get on planes and go and sell overseas.

Aside from the notion that most small companies would, by nature, not be in business in today’s economy if they weren’t working hard, Hague’s disgruntlement with business productivity is misplaced when you consider that UK companies have seen increases in exporting activity over the first quarter of the year.

The DHL/British Chambers of Commerce Trade Confidence index, which draws upon more than 1,000 exporters, shows an 8 per cent increase on the same quarter last year.

By this measure, SMEs are getting the message loud and clear. And loud and clear the call has been; David Cameron has spent most of his tenure issuing orders for UK businesses to go forth and prosper in foreign climes without offering much in the way of policies to facilitate the job.

According to data from the Western Union Business Solutions International Trade Monitor, nearly two thirds (65 per cent) of importers and exporters feel confident about current trade conditions in the three months to March 2012 – an increase of 9 per cent on the previous quarter. Such a statistic hardly indicates a nation of business folk preoccupied with complaining about the economy.

As the government is at pains to point out, it cannot actively create growth but rather create the conditions for growth. It will surely realise, then, that recent demands from aviation bosses to invest in transport infrastructure for the good of the UK’s future competitiveness cannot go unheeded.

Many exporters found last year challenging, with high input prices for oil and other commodities hammering numerous businesses. But price pressures are easing, and this combined with lower inflation could make it an easier year for many exporters. Let’s see how lazy business owners supposedly are in 12 months’ time.

See also: Getting the right message across to the right people