The UK''s Marine East AGM on 12 April at Trend Marine brought a call to action from chairman Alan Goodchild, who believes an ambition for the sector to grow by 50% over the next eight years is fully achievable.
“During 2011, our industry received a major vote of confidence when the government partnered with industry leaders to declare an ambition for the sector to grow by 50% over the next eight years,” said Mr Goodchild.
With that support and the huge potential from the expanding wind farms around our coasts, he added, the board of Marine East believes our sector should be looking to exceed that target.
More than 40 organisations from Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk were represented including many marine sector businesses, associations and local public bodies were represented at the AGM.
Marine East has established a leading role in bidding to Europe for funding to develop the skills needed to service and take advantage of the opportunities within the rapidly emerging offshore wind industry, the AGM heard.
"The relationships we are nurturing around the UK will place us at the centre of the national conversation and will help secure some of the benefits that businesses in our region richly deserve,” said Marine East chief executive Gary Williams. “The main focus is without doubt on supply chain opportunities which will find new work for businesses and create jobs.”
Closely aligned to this is the need to ensure we are providing a well trained and skilled workforce to meet the obvious demands which will come from securing this work, he added.
