Andy Burnham outlined his ambitious plans to make聽Manchester the UK鈥檚 tech capital at a tech summit in the city yesterday.
As he promised before winning May鈥檚聽election, the Mayor held a landmark gathering of the region鈥檚 top digital minds within his first 100 days in office.
His aim is to harness the聽power of technology and spark a new digital revolution which will connect people, businesses and communities.
Speaking exclusively to 老九品茶Cloud editor Chris Maguire, he set out the ways in which the city region can thrive.
He said: 鈥淚 want Manchester to be the number one tech city in the UK, and I think we can do it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about skills and infrastructure, and a plan for start-ups in helping them grow.
鈥淏ut, we always do things with a difference here. And the difference is we need to be a smart city in every sense of that phrase.
“Not just making our traffic lights work better or our trams run on time, but connecting people to opportunity.
鈥淐onnecting older people to things that mean they don鈥檛 feel lonely anymore. Tackling homelessness, helping people move from where they are on the streets to a better situation. Crucially, young people too 鈥� we鈥檙e using digital connectivity to give people hope.
鈥淔or me, if you do those things, both from the business side and the skills side, but also on the social side, then we will justifiably earn that crown of the UK鈥檚 top digital city.鈥�
The Mayor has already outlined the plan for a 拢2m digital skills fund, and a digital infrastructure board will have its first meeting this month.
Setting his ambition to be the UK鈥檚 top city, Burnham added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e 60 days in but I鈥檓 just so glad I did this. What I鈥檝e heard so far excites me, actually.
鈥淧eople are really crying out for this approach, where we come together, we set a new ambition together as a city region 鈥� the top digital city in the UK, why not?
鈥淲e are going to the top, but what I want here is a different way of doing politics in action. Let the people in this room write the plan. And then when they鈥檝e done that, we agree that I will back it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 good for Manchester in terms of its industry, but it鈥檚 a new way of involving people in politics as well 鈥� creating some hope in times聽where things are a bit difficult in terms of the wider world.鈥�
To ensure the summit is industry-led, he enlisted the support of digital leaders in Greater Manchester to help drive the plans forward, including Sandy Lindsay MBE, founder and chair of communications consultancy Tangerine and founder of social media apprenticeship programme The Juice Academy; Lawrence Jones MBE, founder and CEO of UKFast; Katie Gallagher, managing director of Manchester Digital; and Kirsty Styles, head of talent and skills at Tech North.