OXFORDSHIRE is set to become part of one of the world's top ten economic regions within a decade, according to a new report.

The county is part of a new economic region, the wealthiest in Britain outside London, which also encompasses Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Surrey, East and West Sussex, and Kent.

At present the region is ranked 18th wealthiest in Europe in terms of gross domestic product per head. It slipped from the number 15 spot in 1995.

But Alan Willett, the newly appointed chairman of the new Regional Development Agency for the south-east, said the area must become Britain's innovation region "leaping up the chain of high value-added business."

He predicted that the region could achieve economic growth rates of ten per cent a year.

But he warned: "We want to keep our green and pleasant land. Only 13 per cent is built up and we don't want to change that.

"That is what will attract people and if we cover it with carparks and roads they won't want to live here."

The agency, which will employ up to 100 staff at its Guildford headquarters from next April, will be one of eight regional development offices in Britain, but unlike parts of northern England and the Midlands the area has little regional consciousness.

Mr Willett founded his own business Willett International, which makes and supplies coding and labelling equipment, and in 1996 founded the Centre for Tomorrow's Company.

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