Neville Reyner, who used to run Mitsubishi Electric in the UK and then ran the East of England Development Agency - and is now chairman of Anglia Components - has been elected President of the British Chambers of Commerce.

"I want to do something for the electronics industry", Reyner told Electronics Weekly, "there are a lot of start-up businesses in the electronics industry that we could help in managing their businesses and in networking with potential partners and customers."

"What I'd like to see is whether we can recruit more electronics companies as members of Chambers of Commerce", added Reyner, "for the foreseeable future it's going to be SMEs which constitute most of the electronics activity of the UK."

Asked how exactly he could help an electronic start-up business, Reyner replied: "With networking events and contacts. There are Chambers of Commerce all over the world, I am vice president of Eurochambre (the European equivalent of the British Chambers of Commerce) and we are all connected internationally. The world is going SME - globally, it's going SME - and the Chambers of Commerce can link SMEs across the world."

Another way the Chambers of Commerce can help is with overseas marketing research which is run by the Chambers of Commerce of many countries.

"One of the biggest powers of the Chambers is the networking", added Reyner, "we're about representing the needs of companies, and getting a voice into policy at the regional and national level."

Beyond the high-tech start-ups which are leading the UK's revival in advanced electronics, Reyner sees some robust manufacturing activity here. "Low-volume, high-value manufacturing is doing well in this country", said Reyner.

See also: Mannerisms, the blog of David Manners. Updated twice daily, it's the distinctive, entertaining, authoritative and never dull commentary on the semiconductor industry, from someone who knows. Sign up for the Mannerisms eNewsletter.