ALL of us recognise how hard our economy and region have been hit by global recession. I believe that things would be worse without a very good regional development agency.
I always want to ensure that public bodies work with unions and businesses to help create new work with the minimum of fuss and that has been a key part of ONE's role.
I must confess to some initial doubts about regional development agencies being unaccountable. That is why it was right that the government set up regional scrutiny committees in the Commons.
The North East regional committee, of which I am a member, is completing a report into how the region has coped during the recession. This follows months of intense scrutiny of One North East.
The most commonly heard message from all sides was that the agency has played a pivotal role in tackling the challenges which face us all. ONE has a strong track record of delivery. It is helping businesses to survive the recession and has devoted an additional £46m to frontline business support. This includes free business health checks which have been taken up by more than 4,300 regional firms.
And it is delivering for our region in several key areas.
It is working with a wide range of industrial and public sector partners, including Nissan in Sunderland to make the region the best place in the country for the development of electric vehicle technology.
It is a key partner with the New and Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth, which has recently secured £10m of Government funding. This helps it to lead the way in exploiting the economic potential of offshore wind and wave power.
It has helped the Printable Electronics Technology Centre at NETPark in Sedgefield to make it the recognised national base for the emerging printable electronics sector. The global market for this is forecast to grow to £15bn by 2015 and £125bn by 2025.
It is helping the National Industrial Biotechnology Facility at Wilton on Teesside, which has recently secured £12m of Government investment for the development of open-access demonstrator facilities for industrial biotechnology. In order to attract new business and investment to the region, One North East's inward investment and aftercare team promotes the region as an investment destination and proactively targets overseas companies with investment propositions.
That success can be measured by the fact that in 2008/9, ONE secured 53 inward investments for the region. This is worth more than £200m and led to the creation of almost 2,900 new jobs and safeguarded more than 1,400 existing jobs, from firms from the USA, India, Japan, China, Sweden and Norway in sectors including automotive, electronics, energy, life sciences and digital media.
This work is supported by the agency's Passionate People, Passionate Places campaign, which aims to increase awareness of North East England as the place in which to invest, live, work, study and visit.
The North East Ambassadors' programme also builds on our strong sense of regional pride and identity to develop a network of passionate people spreading the word about the region as a vibrant hub for business investment, growth and career advancement.
This is a small sample of the work ONE is involved in. Is it perfect? Of course not. But the agency is a key component in our region's battle to survive this recession and, for those of us who were hit hard by past recessions, it is clear that we are much better off with such a key strategic partner than without one.
Newcastle Chronicle and Journal
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