Harry Tee CBE, Chairman of the Electronics Leadership Council talks to Electronics Weekly about the UK government's growing recognition of the importance of electronics technologies to the economy and national skills base.
1. What is the role of the ELC?
The role of the ELC is to represent the industry at the highest level in Government and to raise the profile of the sector with policy makers to ensure legislation supports the industry and encourages investment and innovation.
The industry is fragmented and widespread and as a consequence its importance to the UK economy has been frequently underestimated. Government has to recognise that the Electronics industry is an integral and growing part of the, biomedical, green technology, defence, aerospace, automotive and virtually every other sector. Electronics is even penetrating the very conventional lighting industry with new, green, disruptive technologies. Electronics is not merely an underpinning technology; it is a fundamental building block for all these technology segments. The ELC will continue to drive this message every time we write to or meet politicians but we are doing so much more as advocates of the industry. We have clearly defined goals and have managed to place key people in key roles.
An example of this is Indro Mukerjee, a Council member, is the Chairman of the Electronics Group in SEMTA, the Sector Skills Council for our industry and Herman Hauser is a member of the Advisory Panel established to distribute the funds set aside by Government in the New Industry, New Jobs white paper,
2. Does the ELC have specific aims or targets, such as what its members would like to achieve in its representation of UK industry?
The ELC was initially established to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the Electronics Industry Growth Team (EIGT) Report. This was our priority for the first three years but we then realised that we could have much more influence on policy if we upgraded the roles of the people who served on the Council.
When we achieved this we found ourselves with much more access to policy makers, increased influence and an ability to exert significant pressure on them to adopt some of our ideas. We have now defined specific goals together with the UKEA (an Alliance of the key TAs) in areas such as Skills, R&D, Public Procurement and SMEs. In each area, for example in Government Procurement, we have made some progress but there is still a long way to go. We understand our constituency much better now and in particular the dominance of SMEs and our task is to create the opportunities for the companies to benefit from our activities and endeavours.
One of our top priorities is to push Government to create the fiscal conditions that stimulate innovation and creativity and we work hard with all Government departments and indeed many outside agencies, to try to coordinate key messages.
3. How important is the electronics industry to the UK economy?
In the 21st Century any industrialised economy that does not have a vibrant and innovative electronics industry is going to perform sub-optimally. We are living in the digital age and the UK must capitalise on the strength and knowledge we have in the technology field or risk being left behind.
This is the message we have been drumming into Government for the past few years and we have made progress. Lord Mandelson said recently that the country needs "less financial engineering and more real engineering" - I'm not going to say we fed him the line - but we certainly fed him the message.
At the beginning of this year the ELC submitted a ten point paper to Lord Mandelson entitled "New Innovation, New Jobs" in response to his "industrial activism" speech earlier in the year. Of the ten points we submitted and discussed with him at a subsequent meeting, six were included in his White Paper "New Industry, New Jobs" (he couldn't quite bring himself to steal our title entirely) including, and very importantly, the setting up of an Innovation Fund to assist SMEs.
4. How would characterise the understanding of the economic importance of the UK electronics industry in Whitehall and the corridors of power?
A few years ago I would have said in all honesty the electronics industry was totally unrecognised in Whitehall other than to those civil servants whose job it was to represent the industry together with the IT sector. Now that has changed totally.
We had a significant input to the manufacturing white paper "New Challenges: New Opportunities" produced by Shriti Vadera the last Minister and to the "New Industry New Jobs" white paper produced this year. Now our job is to ensure that these were not merely words on a paper but they are turned into actions to strengthen our industry.
Peter Mandelson is unquestionably the most senior politician in Government who actually "gets it". He understands the vital importance of manufacturing and the high technology industries to Britain's future and I think the ELC can lay claim to having played a part in his conversion.
I know there is sceptism in the industry about what we can achieve but I believe we have their attention now and together we must seize the opportunity.
5. What would most like to see change in the government's approach in its support of the electronics industry?
We would like to see the Government, of whatever colour it is in the future, invest in turning our excellent science base into usable technologies and into commercial success. The investment in science has increased each year and is forecast to reach £6bn in 2010 yet very little goes into transitioning the science into technology and into products. The ELC wants to see Technology Development Centres established with the clear mission to commercialise our science.
The UK has a technology lead in plastic electronics yet it is Germany and Holland who have set up the first dedicated research facilities to develop the technology. The ELC has been working hard to promote our position in Plastic Electronics and now the Government has responded positively with the announcement made recently by Lord Mandelson to invest £28million in the technology as a key part of the New Industry New Jobs initiatives, including support for the five Centres of Excellence in showcasing the benefits of using Plastic Electronics in the development of new products.
The recently announced £20 million expansion of the Printable Electronic Technology Centre (PETEC) in Sedgefield is also very welcome and will ultimately lead to a manufacturing line for plastic electronic displays and integrated smart systems will being installed in the centre in early 2011.
We are working on both main political parties at the present time to convince them that they must have an industrial policy, particularly in respect of the electronics industry, at the heart of their manifesto commitments.
There has been far too much emphasis on public services in the past and not nearly enough on the creators of wealth who pay for all these public services.
The present Government has realised that utter dependence on the financial services sector is foolish. Engineering and manufacturing are strong, solid foundations on which to build an economy and at long last the penny has dropped, but there is still a huge amount of work to do to ensure that industrial policy is the right policy, aimed at the right sectors, driving innovation and building long term strength.
Electronics is at the heart of everything in the 21st century and we must keep pushing politicians to get it right. That's our job and although none of the ELC members receive any remuneration or compensation for the hours we apply to this, we are all totally committed to the task on behalf of our industry.
See also: Q5 - Interviews with electronics industry leaders
Read all the Electronics Weekly Q5 interviews. From ARM's chairman, Sir Robin Saxby, to touchscreen technology firm Zytronic's MD, Mark Cambridge, the business leaders share their particular insights on the UK electronics industry.