Building the UK-Japan Policy Dialogue

In support of the UK-Japan ‘Industrial Policy Dialogue’, the IfM was pleased to host a visit by key members of the working group for the Advanced Manufacturing strand. There have been ongoing discussions between the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in the UK and the Director General of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in Japan to delve deeper into potential opportunities for areas of collaboration. The working group for Advanced Manufacturing includes representatives from BEIS, Innovate UK, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) as well as counterparts in Japan. The group also visited the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry and the Warwick Manufacturing Group.

Pictured (left to right): Carlos Lopez-Gomez (Policy Links), Keith Hodgkinson (BEIS), Clare Porter (BEIS), Tim Minshall (IfM), Hiromi Sakamoto (METI), Louise Sun (BEIS), Shinji Tokumasu (METI), Mark Begbie (BEIS), Simon Masters (IUK) and Matt Ellis (BEIS)

Building on previous discussions:

These discussions follow an initial meeting in 2017 and again in June 2018 when, as part of the UK Advanced Manufacturing working group, Head of Policy Links Carlos López-Gómez joined the delegation to Tokyo in order to establish areas of collaboration in the field of advanced manufacturing. A senior UK delegations were joined by representatives from the British Embassy in Tokyo where the meetings was held. Senior officials from METI, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and the Robot Revolution and Industrial IoT Initiative who form part of the working group in Japan also took part in the discussion.