Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be here to witness the start of this partnership between the Society of British Aerospace Companies and the Motorsport Industries Association, and to have the opportunity to say a few words of support.
I am particularly pleased because what you are doing is so much in line with the new thinking within DTI. Today in DTI we are focussed on productivity, which is increasingly becoming our core mission. That is why creating the best environment for innovation is so central to our thinking and why we have set up a new Innovation Group and bought in a Director General to head up the group who has a background in industry. In DTI we see innovation as a core aspect for companies to compete within the market.
This partnership between the aerospace and the motorsport industries is, I believe, an exciting and imaginative initiative to increase innovation in both industries.
It is possible because the two industries share many similarities. Both operate in world class manufacturing environments, where high speed, harsh environments and even higher stresses are everyday facts of life. The need for safety is also paramount and both industries have come a long way from the distant days of Lindberg and Moss – where ones personal safety was determined only by the limit of their courage.
Both also use similar technology such as specialist gearing and composite, lightweight materials.
While the airbus is fundamentally different to the Williams Formula 1, it does share many common characteristics, as well as a need for similar high tech solutions in fields such as aerodynamics, low weight and high strength construction.
This Government, through the DTI, is committed to working with both industries. Commitment which means creating the best possible environment for innovation and helping both industries to consolidate their position as key players in the global market. Commitment which means working in partnership with both industries as they strive to stay at the forefront of manufacturing world-class products.
Examples of this are the joint DTI/industry motorsport competitiveness panel aimed at sustaining and developing an already competitive motorsport industry and the DTI/SBAC led competitiveness challenge programme of spreading best practice throughout the UK aerospace industry.
In recognising that our world-class aerospace industry also faces strong competition from abroad, the DTI has set up the Aerospace Innovation and Growth Team to look at the industry's long-term future. A wide range of stakeholders and senior people in both Government and Industry are involved in the IGT's activities and I have been very impressed by the amount of resources and effort which are going into it. The fact that everyone is working so closely together out of concern for the industry is in itself an excellent motivation, and I look forward to the IGT's recommendations for practical steps, which can secure the industry's future position.
In this country, we cannot compete in labour intensive industries on the basis of low costs. We have to compete on the basis of our skills, knowledge and creativity, which is why this project is so important.
The SBAC/MIA high performance engineering partnership will undoubtedly enhance the current competitiveness improvement programmes, as well as help to foster increased collaboration between the two industries, and I am delighted that these two world-class UK industries have joined together to increase their rate of innovation to an even higher level.
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