QUANTUM computers, self-driving cars, digital health and space and satellites will boost Oxfordshire’s economy in the next few years.

That was the message from Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s chief executive Nigel Tipple in a business forecast for next year and beyond.

The influential business leader, said these technologies presented ‘major opportunities’ and urged firms to make the most of them.

Referring to the Science Innovation Audit report published in September which picked out the four sectors, he reminded business leaders and small firms of the report authors’ findings that Oxfordshire can play a major global role in driving forward the UK economy.

Mr Tipple said: “In recent months, Oxfordshire has continued to reaffirm a world-leading economic position with several reports from global organisations citing our economic strengths.”

Looking back on the past year, he pointed to accountancy and business consultancy PwC’s Good Growth for Cities report published in October, which cited Oxford as one of the two highest-performing cities when it comes to growth.

This followed a study by law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre of Economics and Business Research which revealed Oxford had the second fastest-growing economy in the country.

Mr Tipple also said the small business sector of the county also “paints a positive story”.

He quoted a report from the Office of National Statistics suggesting Oxford is one of the best locations in the country to start a business, with half currently surviving its first five years of trading.

Nesta’s The State of Small Business report, published in October, ranked South Oxfordshire as having one of the highest five-year survival rates nationally.

Mr Tipple pointed out Oxfordshire included two government-backed Enterprise Zones plus a number of internationally renowned hubs such as Harwell Campus, Culham Science Centre and Milton Park, putting the county in “prime position to drive forward the UK economy, post-Brexit”.

He described the vote to leave the EU as “undoubtedly, the biggest political development over the past 18 months and probably for a generation”.

But he said following the agreement to move Brexit negotiations on to a trade discussion, Oxfordshire businesses would feel “reassured”.

Adding that “these developments are of course out of our hands”, he described the Oxfordshire economy as ‘agile’.

Mr Tippled said his New Year message to the county’s business community was “we have the capacity to rise to the challenge of a post-Brexit economy”.