This is according to new research from accountants and business advisers BDO Stoy Hayward.

Ian Beaumont, Yorkshire managing partner, based at the firm's offices in Bridgewater Place, Leeds, said: "Yorkshire's top 150 were highly productive in 2007, taking advantage of the benign conditions, and successfully increased profitability and improved financial stability.

"However, it is the North-West who may be better placed to capitalise on the growth opportunities that emerge in two to three years' time.

"For the second year in a row, North-West businesses have shown they manage their tax charge more efficiently, operate and maximise a greater number of opportunities in a global arena, and increased sales by 7.1 per cent compared to Yorkshire's 5.6 per cent.

"Yorkshire business is often criticised for not displaying the same entrepreneurial streak as some other regions, and it is true that the region's businesses are inherently conservative in both investment and gearing, making them much cautious than their neighbours in the North-West.

"As a result, it will be interesting to monitor and compare how the
two regions emerge from the extremely tough economic challenges that
we are currently experiencing."

BDO's research shows that while both regions had been able to reduce their overall tax charge, the North-West had proved it could manage this more effectively at a rate of 22 per cent, compared to Yorkshire's 31.9 per cent.

The Yorkshire figure is, however, a reduction from a previous rate of 34.9 per cent and BDO said the group of 150 businesses included in its Yorkshire Report had done well to keep their tax charge close to the 30 per cent corporation tax rate.

Looking at exports, BDO said the North-West's top 150 companies operated in a very diverse market, working across 46 different business sectors and they were global, with more than half of the group's revenue coming from overseas (56 per cent).

In Yorkshire less than 10 per cent of revenues were earned abroad and, with UK markets offering little comfort, Yorkshire's top 150 needed to look overseas to continue to capitalise on the encouraging headway they had made in the rapidly developing Asian marketplace, where sales increased by nine per cent.

Mr Beaumont added: "For Yorkshire to come out of the credit crunch in a strong position, the region's businesses need to change their outlook to become increasingly global."

l Copies of the Yorkshire Report are available by e-mailing yorkshirereport@bdo.co.uk.