The Financial Times (FT) is to host a business debate in association with One NorthEast on Friday 14th September 2007. The theme of the event is, A new North East – Renaissance or false dawn, and takes place at the Lumley Castle Hotel, County Durham, starting at 7.30am.

Running in the same format as the BBC’s Question Time, the audience will be able to put their questions to a panel of North East business experts. The panel will be chaired by John Willman, UK Business Editor of the Financial Times and the five panellists are:

•Alan Clarke, Chief Executive of One NorthEast

•John Shipley OBE, leader of Newcastle City Council

•Bob Coxon, Chairman for the Centre of Process Innovation

•Matt Ridley, Chairman of Northern Rock

•Chris Peacock, MD of Peacocks Medical Group

The debate is timed to coincide with the FT’s special report, Doing Business in the North East, the latest in a series of special reports focusing on business in the UK’s leading cities and regions. Led by Chris Tighe, the FT’s North East of England correspondent, the report provides a comprehensive guide to doing business in the region and will include the following features:

•A look at the changing NE economy, including case studies on three sectors that are emerging as a regional strength – process technologies, new and renewable energy and environmental technologies, healthcare and health sciences.

•A piece on how the North East is governed and how that could change

•The NE’s regional identity in terms of dialect, accent, culture, attitudes and food

•The impact of the region’s five universities – Newcastle, Northumbria, Durham, Sunderland and Teeside, featuring interviews with the two new vice chancellors at Newcastle University and Durham

•The role of Newcastle as the Science city

•The expansion of the region’s legal sector

•Companies to watch in the region

•A look at where to live work and play in the area.

The event is being held in the Garter Room of the Lumley Castle Hotel, Chester Le Street, Country Durham, DH3 4NX. Breakfast will be served from 7.30am and the debate will start at 8.00am sharp, finishing at 9.00am. To reserve your space, please contact Lizzie Allen on 0207 873 4463.

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For further information, please contact:

Lizzie Allen, Financial Times, 020 7873 4463 or lizzie.allen@ft.com

About the Financial Times:

The Financial Times Group, one of the world’s leading business information companies, aims to provide a broad range of business information and services to the growing audience of internationally minded business people. The FT Group includes:

1.The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business newspapers, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, the newspaper is printed in 23 cities across the globe, has a daily circulation of 452,000 and a readership of more than 1.4 million people worldwide.

2.FT.com is one of the world’s leading business information websites, and the internet partner of the FT newspaper. Since its relaunch in May 2002, the website has continued to be the definitive home for business intelligence on the web, providing an essential source of news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community. FT.com attracts 5.3 million unique monthly users (ABC electronic figures January 2007) generating 40.4 million page views and has 90,000 subscribers.

3.The FT Group’s pan-European network of national business newspapers and online services including France’s leading business newspaper and website, Les Echos and lesechos.fr. In February 2000, the FT launched a new German language newspaper, FT Deutschland, with a fully integrated online business news and data service.

4.Through FT Interactive Data, the FT Group is one of the world’s leading sources of securities pricing and specialist financial information to global institutional, professional and individual investors. Its products include eSignal, an online realtime streaming quotation service for brokers and active traders.

5.FT Business, which produces specialist information on the retail, personal and institutional finance industries. It publishes the UK’s premier personal finance magazine, Investors Chronicle, and The Banker, Money Management and Financial Adviser for professional advisers.

6.The Mergermarket Group, whose products and services provide the global advisory and corporate communities with intelligence and analysis. With regional head offices in London, New York and Hong Kong and 200 journalists in 46 locations worldwide, reliable and validated proprietary intelligence and historical data is provided via the mergermarket, dealReporter, Debtwire and wealthmonitor on-line platforms.

7.The Financial Times Group also has a stake in a number of joint ventures, including;

•FTSE International, a joint venture with the London Stock Exchange.

•Vedomosti, Russia’s leading business newspaper and a partnership venture with Dow Jones and Independent Media

•A 50% stake in BDFM, publishers of South Africa’s leading financial newspapers and websites.

•A 50% stake in The Economist Group, which publishes the world’s leading weekly business and current affairs journal.

•A 13.85% stake in Business Standard, one of India’s leading financial newspapers.

The FT Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media group.