Rallying call to partners in prosperity

Mr Shields was at the Reebok Stadium on Friday night to address the first annual dinner of the new Bolton and Bury Chamber.

Improve

He said the North-west region needed to improve its performance - relative to its counterparts in the UK and Europe - and stressed the importance of partnership working with organisations such as the Chamber.

He suggested that success might mean the Agency and the non-statutory regional assemby would be the forerunners of much more substantial regional government with a wider range of powers and influence.

But he warned: "There can be no passengers - everyone must put into the partnership as well as getting something out of it."

One of the RDA's first jobs will be to prepare a regional economic strategy for publication later this year.

Mr Shields said it needed to encourage the development of the economy and the associated generation of wealth.

"We also need a strategy which recognises the overwhelming need to ensure that the economic activity generated is translated to the benefit of deprived local communities," he said.

"The whole complex subject of social exclusion must be confronted in a concerted and single-minded way."

It was a requirement that need should be matched with opportunity to ensure that benefits really did flow to the communities which needed them most.

Mr Shields went on: "This will only happen if we work hard at it - the concept of trickle down is a myth - long-term unemployed people will only get decent jobs if the mechanisms are in place to bring them back to employability and if employers, such as many here this evening, are willing to give them an opportunity, a chance."

Topics being pursued by the RDA include lobbying to make sure the region does not lose much-needed European cash support and the preparation of a regional skills strategy.

Of particular interest to local business people at the dinner was the prospect of a regional venture capital fund aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises.

It would deal in investments below £250,000 - particularly those under £100,000.

Mr Shields said: "The fund will want to encourage the growth of small companies so that we develop an increasingly powerful group of small and medium-sized companies whose decisions are taken in the region - as against the branch plants whose decisions are rarely taken in the region or even in the UK."

Other matters under consideration included the establishment of a high-quality North-west web site - a window for the world - which would include regional information about such things as tourism, cultural and sporting assets, facilities and institutions.

Review

There would also be a review of export advice available to smaller companies, the establishment of a regional intelligence unit and emphasis on the application of new technology, the exploitation of new ideas, the development of a climate of innovation and encouragement of the entrepreneur.

Mr Tony Rink, Chairman of the Chamber, pledged the organisation's support ("that's, of course, so long as we agree with what he wants us to do!") and said they were anxious to play their part in the things which needed to be done on a regional level. Right name? MR Richard Hurst, the Chamber's vice chairman, said the Regional Development Agency created a wonderful opportunity.

But he wondered whether the North-west needed a different name and identity.

"North-west of England region does not create much of an impact," he said.

"Maybe there should be a name more useful in marketing terms?"

Any ideas? Write to: Letters to the Editor, Newspaper House, Churchgate, Bolton, BL1 1DE.

Rallying call to

partners in prosperity

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