Cable: 'We've let pendulum swing too far away from manufacturing'

The sector's share of GDP had fallen to just over 10%, he claimed, "a far more precipitate fall than in competitor countries and Germany, in particular," and "turning the tide … will be no easy task", Cable said. Why – thanks to manufacturing – was the market share of Germany in the emerging BRIC countries four to five times larger than in the UK and why had we even been overtaken in these markets by France and Italy, the Business Secretary asked. However, he insisted that the downward trend was not irreversible with the growing prosperity of Asia likely to cause some rebalancing. "In real terms, the yuan is 50% higher than in 2005. Chinese wages are rising 20% annually: Boston Consulting Group has predicted that this might return millions of jobs to those Western producers which are competitive," he went on. He promised the government would: -support innovation -provide seed capital to leverage in private investment. -focus on skills, centred on apprenticeships- work with major manufacturers to rebuild their supply chains.