THE BIGGEST celebration of the county's business achievement is launched today when nominations for 2007's Daily Echo-backed Hampshire Business Awards open.

This year's search for the county's best businesses sees the sponsors challenging Hampshire companies to scale even greater heights of business excellence.

Now in their 17th year, the awards aim to seek out and name the county's very best business talent.

The three sponsors - law firm Bond Pearce, business advisors KPMG and finance giant The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) - are keen to attract entries from as many organisations as possible from the length and breadth of Hampshire.

"Each year we see an even better range of companies telling us about their achievements," explained Nick Page of Bond Pearce. "The awards always reveal some great stories about Hampshire businesses and we are hoping that 2007 will be no exception with entries of the highest quality."

Three awards - The Bond Pearce Innovation Award, KPMG Company of the Year and the RBS International Trade Award - are open for entries from today, ahead of this year's closing date of Friday, June 8.

Explaining the awards, Mark Price of RBS said: "Each of the three categories celebrate the different qualities which make businesses a success - innovation, international trade and all-round excellence."

This year's campaign will culminate on Thursday, September 13, with an awards ceremony and black tie dinner. Tony Cottam of KPMG said: "Each year we celebrate the different attractions and venues Hampshire has to offer. This year we will be holding our awards dinner at Action Stations, the interactive visitor showcase for the modern Royal Navy in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard."

n For more details about this year's awards or to apply, log on to www.dailyecho.co.uk/ debusiness and follow the link or call Julie Myhill at RBS on 023 8024 2161 for further information.