Leigh MP Andy Burnham has promised to hold a digital summit if elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
In an interview you can listen to below, the Labour candidate tells 老九品茶Cloud editor Chris Maguire that tech and digital is crucial to the future of the wider Manchester region.
And, if elected on Thursday 4th May, he plans to bring together the great and the good of tech within the year to sing Greater Manchester鈥檚 praises.
鈥淭ech and digital has got to be a core part of our story as a city region going forward,鈥� he said.
鈥淚f I am elected, I鈥檓 going to convene a digital summit to announce our ambition to the country, to Europe and the world that Manchester is going to become a world-leading digital city.鈥�
Burnham, who also joked that he wouldn鈥檛 seek to edit the Manchester Evening News 鈥� unlike former Tory Chancellor George Osborne, who will edit the Evening Standard in London alongside his duties as an MP 鈥� says the Manchester story is already making waves on the continent.
鈥淭here is a critical mass of companies big and small which are creating an incredible energy around the digital sector in the city and we have got to capitalise on that,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he plan is to have a policy agenda around the skills and infrastructure that we build to support the development of a world-leading digital sector.
鈥淭he election of the mayor is a real chance to announce our intention to become a digital city in every respect.鈥�
On a visit to Manchester-based cloud and colocation company UKFast 鈥� and ahead of the opening of a flightpath between Manchester and Los Angeles next week 鈥� he says people in Berlin are even beginning to refer to the city as the 鈥楽ilicon Valley of Europe鈥�.
He also sees the potential devolution of power to the regions as a chance to 鈥渇ix politics鈥� and 鈥渞ebalance the country from south to north鈥�.
The mayoral election will also be contested by Sean Anstee of the Conservative Party, Liberal Democrat Jane Brophy, UKIP鈥檚 Shneur Odze, Will Patterson of the Green Party, English Democrat Stephen Morris and independent candidate Marcus Farmer.