GLASGOW must do more to sell its engineering expertise and heritage to the world, to attract greater inward investment in this sector, the head of the city's chamber of commerce has declared.
And Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, believes it is up to the private sector to take up this task.
He highlighted the importance of getting the message right so that more engineering investment is attracted by Glasgow, in terms of companies either basing themselves or setting up branch operations in the city.
Mr Patrick believes it is crucial for Glasgow to "be really clear on what we are distinctive about", highlighting the potential in its status as a top-30 European city.
He said: "The thing we are really distinctive about is engineering."
Declaring that he was "not conscious" that Glasgow had a "really strong message" on its engineering prowess which extended outwith the UK, Mr Patrick said: "As a city, we have been great for selling ourselves as a place for financial services, for cultural industries, for business conferences and tourism, [and] life sciences."
Mr Patrick said that the private sector had most of the knowledge and relationships to be able to "fill out 90 per cent of the case" for the Glasgow engineering sector.
He added: "The companies know what they are good at. They know what their successes are. The universities are an important part of the story as well...
"This time round, I am not really laying down the gauntlet to the public sector. It is more of a challenge to us in the business community to get the story fashioned, shaped, and then laid out on a plate for everyone to use."
Mr Patrick noted that the Technology & Innovation Centre at Strathclyde University, billed as a hub for world-leading research, was due to open in March, and highlighted the fact that the All- Energy Exhibition & Conference was being staged in Glasgow in May.
He said: "If by the summer we haven't gone a long way to telling that story better then something is amiss."
Mr Patrick highlighted the raft of engineering companies operating in Glasgow and the surrounding area, citing big names including Aggreko, Weir, Howden, Castle Precision, Thales and BAE Systems.
And, reiterating the need for Glasgow to market this expertise better on the global stage, he added: "I am not quite sure we have captured that message that is sellable to the rest of the world, so more to be done."
Mr Patrick said: "I think really to get the message out is largely about people investing in the sector."
He also highlighted the need to attract more people into engineering through the education system, at various levels, not just into graduate schemes but into apprenticeships and also at technician level.
Mr Patrick cited an estimate by Strathclyde University principal Professor Sir Jim McDonald that there were 10,000 professional engineers in Glasgow and the surrounding area and declared: "That is a hell of a base to start from."
He added: "It could be a relatively long game...The more we get the message out about Glasgow as a distinctive engineering city and we are encouraging people to come through the school, college and university system at various parts of the engineering disciplines, the easier it is going to be for us to persuade companies to establish themselves in Glasgow or to put branches of their work into Glasgow."
Mr Patrick was meanwhile at pains to hammer home his belief that people should not accept that there was some kind of inevitability about the manufacturing sector continuing to decline as a proportion of the overall economy.
He estimated that manufacturing accounted for about 10 per cent to 12 per cent of the economy in Glasgow and the surrounding "region".
Mr Patrick said: "We shouldn't assume that the inevitability is that must decline in future."
He added: "In the back of our minds, when we are saying engineering has got to be a much bigger part of the story for Glasgow it is time to stop...the story that manufacturing is no longer part of the story in a developed western economy."
Commenting on the general economic backdrop, Mr Patrick said: "We all know that it has been tough on the domestic front. Even though it has been consumer spending that has given us the growth, it can only be because people are back to borrowing more on their credit cards or mortgages."
However, he declared he was "optimistic" about the outlook for Glasgow's economy, highlighting major investment in the likes of office and retail space.
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