THE region's business leaders were shown a vision of the future of information and communications technology (ICT) at an event in Newcastle.

Speaking at the event, Mike Langston, managing director of BT Small and Medium Enterprises, announced that the telecoms firm had joined forces with Cisco, Microsoft, Dell and BT Cellnet to develop and market ICT solutions for Britain's 3.6 million small businesses.

He said: "We have never seen a partnership on this scale before, where small businesses can get whatever technology they need, upgrading as and when they need to, and all from one supplier.

"The combination of the new digital business package and the continuing roll-out of broadband technology will transform the way SMEs do business in the region."

About 69 per cent of North-Eastbusinesses and homes are linked to exchanges that can supply high-speed broadband Internet connections, compared with 60 per cent nationally.

But Mr Langston said despite the availability of the technology in the region, North-East SMEs lagged behind the rest of the UK in terms of exploiting broadband and ICT.

He said: "In the North-East PC ownership and the percentage of SMEs connected to the web lag slightly behind the national average. But we now plan to change that."