Date: Tue 16th June, 2009
Venue: Manchester Art Gallery, Princess Street Manchester, M1 4
Number of Guests Attended: 80
First, the good news. The recession, for those prepared to grasp the nettle, is by no means a bad thing, according to Baron Frankal, director of economic strategy at the Commission for the New Economy and keynote speaker at Insider’s Manchester Economic Forum.
He said: “What we have is a huge economic opportunity dressed up as a huge economic problem. The city region will grow and it’s up to us to determine how that happens.”
One of the keys, said Frankal, is encouraging more international trade. He said: “The Greater Manchester Strategy will focus on the things to take us forward and internationalisation is an area where Manchester really needs to improve, particularly with the rising economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
“By 2030, 92 per cent of the world’s middle classes will be in the developing world and it’s essential the city region accesses those markets better. How we encourage and incentivise businesses is the big question.”
Fellow panellist Angie Robinson, chief executive of Greater Manchester Chamber, said: “We need to persuade government that international trade needs a big push. I’m hoping that city region status will allow us to tailor better packages of support for growing businesses.”
The event, sponsored by Manchester Knowledge Capital, The Corridor and the Commission for the New Economy, pulled around 80 people from various business sectors to Manchester Art Gallery to address the key question: What is a City Region?
Frankal was insistent that there was a real recognition within the Treasury that “city regions have come of age and are the future growth engines of the UK”.
He said that rather than “picking winners” with a sector-based approach, the Greater Manchester Strategy – which will be based around the recommendations from the recent Manchester Independent Economic Review (MIER) - would put in place the infrastructure to allow business to thrive. A lot of that will have to be in the skills area, one that the panel agreed was an area Manchester is lacking.
Jackie Potter, chief executive of The Corridor, made the point that talent retention had to mean not just retaining graduates, but making the case and providing the opportunities for the best graduates. Robinson said that the new strategy represented an opportunity to “bend resources like we never have before and et an agenda that really challenges us as a city”.
