In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Hague said: "There's only one growth strategy: work hard."
His remarks were backed by the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who said there was only so much the Government could do to promote growth.
Reacting to Hague's comments that businesses must work harder, Adam Marshall, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "Businesses up and down the country are busting a gut to find new growth opportunities, both at home and around the world. To borrow a phrase from a politician, businesses are already 'straining every sinew' to deliver growth. And many companies, both large and small, think that government could do more."
"The government needs to recognise that it is a major customer, a maker of markets, and the guardian of Britain's infrastructure and skills policies. Unless it acts boldly to discharge those responsibilities, rather than tinkering at the margins, UK business won't be able to deliver up to its full potential."
Chuka Umunna, shadow business secretary , said: "Business leaders have told ministers this Government has lost the plot and urgently needs to work with them to create the conditions to foster private sector growth and to provide a more certain policy environment to give business the confidence to invest. "Instead of listening to British business, this out of touch Foreign Secretary now suggests our firms are not working hard enough and that is why there is no growth.
"William Hague says our businesses should 'get on the plane, go and sell things overseas' as if our businesses have not already been trying to do just that. His comments are typical of an out of touch Government that refuses to listen and refuses to take responsibility for its own economic policy failures. "Business has been crying out for the Government to adopt an active industrial government strategy, where government steps up and works in partnership with business instead of stepping aside and telling business to get on with it. For reasons of political ideology, the biggest roadblocks to the adoption of the active government strategy business has called for are the prime minister, the chancellor and now the foreign secretary."
