THEY’RE both cold, at some point they’ll both have ski slopes, and they were both the scene of major speeches by influential people last week. Other than that, there’s probably not that much Davos and Teesside have in common.

I can confirm Teesport doesn’t have gold taps, it hasn't seen fondue since the 1970s and, to our knowledge, Donald Trump has never upset anyone there.

Despite its lack of glamour, Teesport is where David Davies chose to give his Brexit transition speech last week.

There were lots of metaphors about smooth paths, building blocks and bridges (though not the type Boris has in mind) and Mr Davies hailed the Tees as “the export capital of England”.

He’s right about that, and 40 million tonnes on anyone who says different.

The Brexit Secretary’s theme was certainty.

The business community has been keen on the idea for some time now.

Businesses tend to work on longer term cycles and three to five-year plans are common.

Any business currently in their planning processes will be looking at a period covering Brexit and beyond and, up until this speech, the 2019 timetable to get everything sorted out and implemented was looking impossibly short and fraught with dangers.

Anything the Government can do to ease the uncertainty would be welcome.

There is some evidence of a slowdown in investment plans as companies wait and see, and that will start to act as a serious drag on the economy if it continues.

We now know, thanks to this speech, that there will be no giant cliff edge in 2019 and we will have a transitional period of around two years, which effectively buys more time to get things sorted out.

This will be helpful for business planning but still doesn’t give us any real detail for what a final deal might look like or whether there will be a smaller yet significant cliff edge in 2021.

Of course, the detail of all this still has to be agreed by all parties and with the Conservatives resembling the post-match crowd at a Tyne-Tees derby, agreement and that quest for certainty might not be all that easy.

Mr Davies is right - there should be opportunities for business post-Brexit.

But unless we start getting some solid detail on issues like worker immigration and frictionless trade, the value of that transition period will decline and Mr Davies’ smooth path might start to look rugged again.

Rachel Anderson is head of policy and representation at the North East England Chamber of Commerce