Business secretary Greg Clark to hone in on industrial strategy in raft of meetings with companies next week
Business secretary Greg Clark is expected to hold meetings with a raft of companies next week to discuss industrial strategy ahead of a green paper due out later this month.
Morning Wire understands Clark will be in meetings throughout the week with business figures from a range of industries to discuss the UK's nascent industrial strategy.
The discussions would be an opportunity to float early plans for the green paper ahead of its expected publication in mid-January.
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Industrial strategy has come to the forefront under new Prime Minister Theresa May. It was first announced as a policy priority when May merged the former departments of Business, Innovation and Skills and Energy and Climate Change last July, creating the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
May has identified sectors, many relating to technology, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, medical technology and satellites as areas that could benefit from government support under her flagship industrial strategy plan.
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The House of Commons BEIS Committee has consulted with companies such as Airbus, ARM Holdings, Rolls Royce and Aston Martin in probes and roundtables about what the government's industrial strategy should prioritise.
Clark has previously said industrial strategy "has to be local" and should be about "constantly looking to create conditions to be open to new competitors and indeed to new industries that may not exist anywhere today but which will shape our lives in the future".
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"The business secretary meets with businesses regularly," a BEIS spokesperson told Morning Wire