With ASKAR SHEIBANI

CEO Comtek Network Systems UK Ltd and chair DBF

Despite the myth that we don't build anything in Britain, the UK is the ninth largest manufacturing country in the world, according to Make UK, the manufacturers organisation.

North East Wales and North West England is the largest manufacturing hub for the UK, worth about £30bn. However, the services sector, such as leisure, retail, entertainment, etc accounts for over 75% of the UK's GDP. The UK's car exports in 2019 were valued at about £32bn.

The 1980s saw a massive decline in manufacturing with the total demolition of our electronics and telecommunications sectors. It was painful to watch the disappearance of amazing, world-leading, technology companies such as Racal Electronics, Plessey, Marconi, GEC, STC and Ferranti Computer Systems, to name but a few.

However, despite some of the severe setbacks due to the short-sightedness of our policymakers and the lack of a credible industrial strategy, the UK still has a fairly strong manufacturing sector.

We have enormous potential to develop and strengthen our economy by focussing on manufacturing. It pays much better wages to its employees than the services sector. Manufacturing also increases the country's exports.

We should look at Germany as a great example of a European country that has built the cornerstone of its economy on manufacturing.

They have one of the most skilled workforces in the world, delivering high-quality products with great efficiency and productivity.

Germany's universities don't even appear within the list of the top 50 world's best. They have educated their workforce via impressive widespread apprenticeship programmes. They have concentrated mostly on vocational courses delivered by their Further Education colleges in which the students work within the industry.

An average German manufacturing employee works fewer hours but produces more than their counterparts in the USA. In addition, a German manufacturing worker earns much more than their British or American counterparts.

During 2008, when the world was hit by an avalanche of financial crises, we realised the vulnerability of the UK's economic reliance on the financial sector.

The UK economy was hit far more severely than that of Germany. Sadly, our politicians didn't learn any lessons from the past economic crises and do not seem to recognise the key advantages of manufacturing for our economy.

Again, we are now witnessing the vulnerability of our tourism and the hospitality sector during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Manufacturing based economies are by far more resilient during crises, but at this time they do need support more than ever. To strengthen our manufacturing base, both the UK and Welsh governments must invest in building the skilled work force needed. The country must have a long-term industrial strategy.

Unfortunately, in the UK very few of our parliamentarians have an engineering or manufacturing background. As a result, they show very little interest or passion for focusing their policies towards building an industrial-based economy.

Once again, our politicians and governments are repeating the past short-sighted mistakes during this current crisis. They are allowing some of our best manufacturing companies to disappear or shrink.

Allowing some of our most talented engineers to lose their jobs within Wales' Manufacturing heartlands, such as Deeside or Wrexham, is total madness. The UK and Welsh governments must change course and concentrate on building a long-term, resilient economy by supporting the existing high skilled workforce and the manufacturing sector before it is too late.

The Deeside Business Forum, the DBF, has launched a public campaign to spread the message of the key economic advantages of supporting our region's highly skilled workforce and the manufacturing sector.

The DBF ask all the manufacturing companies and their workforces in North Wales to join this campaign by writing to admin@deesidebusinessforum.co.uk.