Around 70% of all UK research and development spending took place in manufacturing, he said.
And he added: “Developing nations often have a lot of factors on their side: cheaper labour, lower standards, raw materials on site and, sometimes, governments that are focused on economic success at the expense of workers’ safety and wellbeing.
“Faced with that, it’s hard to see how British manufacturers can possibly compete. We have higher standards, higher wages too, both secured over many years of development and growth. And while we’re rightly proud of that, it translates into higher costs.”
He said UK manufacturing had two choices: “We can get into a race to the bottom with the developing economies. We can cut corners, costs and quality in order to get by. Or we can do what Britain has always done. We can innovate. We can do things nobody else can do. We can take our skills and our experience and our history and our heritage and apply it to the challenges of the future.”
Javid quoted a range of figures supporting his contention that manufacturing remained strong. He said the sector contributed £168 billion to the UK economy last year and, in the past 10 years, it had grown 2.5 times faster than the rest of UK plc, accounting for half of all British exports: “The sector spans almost 90,000 companies and provides work for literally millions of people.”
He added: “The biggest changes aren’t going to be in what we manufacture so much as how we manufacture, where we manufacture, even who does the manufacturing.
“From 3D printing to virtual factories to the internet of things, the old order is being turned on its head. And I don’t want to see British manufacturers just responding to the changes and challenges the future will bring. I want to see them shaping that future.”
