Dave Atkinson: "Lloyds Bank has been working with the MTA for more than 14 years now and the organisation has been led by James Selka for almost a decade. During that time, I've seen first-hand his dedication to the advanced engineering sector and his inspirational work to raise the profile of UK manufacturers.
"He started as an apprentice and has more than 25 years of manufacturing experience, so there are few better people to sit down with and consider the state of the sector going in to 2024.
"Thank you for your time, James. I wanted to start by asking what is your outlook for manufacturing in the year ahead? It seems that the macro trends are in the sector's favour at long last"
James Selka: "I'm very excited. We have a once in a generation chance to rebuild UK manufacturing and reindustrialise in the most advanced way.
"We went though a big phase of globalisation, but what we're seeing now is a partial globalisation. That's partly down to recent geopolitical events, which helped to expose the potential pitfalls of global supply chains.
"But it's also because the need to act more sustainably means importing things from all over the world that have been made with coal fired energy is not viable anymore.
"There's no other industry that's got the same multiplier factor for wealth creation and I absolutely think that manufacturing can give a real boost to the UK economy."
