Talk of a 'Great North Revolution' might sound grand, but that's exactly what it can be, writes CBI North East director Sarah Green.
EARLIER this year the CBI organised for 50 key business leaders including Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI, to meet in Darlington to discuss how new economy technologies can transform the North East – a project we have named The Great North Revolution.
This can be paralleled with more than 100 years ago, when the North East was at the heart of the industrial revolution.
In the north of the region, Parsons invented the steam turbine and Lord Armstrong installed the first hydroelectric lighting system.
In Teesside, our Quaker ancestors developed the first public passenger railway, The Stockton and Darlington Railway.
This was a time when meetings at forums such as the Newcastle Lit and Phil brought together some of the best engineering brains to innovate and ultimately to create products that revolutionised both industry and the way people lived, creating great wealth for the nation and the region. The North East was a hotbed of world-class engineering.
In 2009, we once again have an opportunity to revolutionise the way people live.
Lord Mandelson has launched his blueprint for the new economy “New Industries, New Jobs” and the North East is fantastically positioned to lead these opportunities, not just within this country but globally.
Once again we have ambitions to lead on technologies that will transform the way we live and the places we live in.
These opportunities include electric vehicle production and infrastructure, the manufacture and supply chain related to offshore wind renewables, building on expertise such as digital and Software City, innovating further around new exciting materials including printable electronics and exploiting our expertise in biosciences and healthcare.
In these areas we are one of only a few places in the world that today have sufficient expertise, natural resources and appropriate supply chain opportunities that mean we could truly be world leading.
If we can really succeed (and I mean become the global leader) in any one of these technologies, we will transform the North East.
Our leading R&D will attract new investment and consequently new well paid jobs, our dominance in these critical sectors will raise the aspirations of our young people, the scale of these opportunities will encourage entrepreneurs and our region will prosper, offering improved prospects for all.