- Trade Secretary launches new Maritime Capability Campaign
Office (MCCO) to unleash UK’s maritime exports potential
- MCCO will drive UK maritime trade, targeting export
opportunities worth up to £600 million over next five years
- New National Shipbuilding Strategy will invest £4 billion
into UK shipbuilding over next three years
The International Trade Secretary today announced a new exports
office to turbocharge the UK’s maritime trade sector as part of a
£4 billion investment in shipbuilding.
The Maritime Capability Campaign Office (MCCO) will unite the
Department’s defence export and civil maritime capabilities in
one unit, targeting export opportunities estimated to be worth up
to £600 million.
The MCCO will work with industry and the government’s National
Shipbuilding Office to line up high-quality maritime trade
opportunities for UK firms in the maritime sector looking to
export worldwide.
It will form the exports and investment arm of the government’s
National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), announced today by Defence
Secretary .
The NSS will seek to increase competitiveness and productivity
throughout the shipbuilding industry, investing £4 billion over
the next three years to create jobs and help level up across the
country.
It will include a 30-year cross-government shipbuilding pipeline
of more than 150 new vessels, investing over £200 million in a
new UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions to help fund green
research and innovation, and a new Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce
to bring the industry together and supply maritime businesses
with the qualified workers they need.
will launch the MCCO
in a keynote speech to the 2022 Maritime UK Awards in Glasgow
this evening.
The International Trade Secretary will say:
“As an island nation with a proud maritime heritage, shipbuilding
is a vital part of the UK’s industrial identity, supporting over
40,000 high-quality jobs across the country.
“Our new Maritime Capability Campaign Office will champion
exports and investments, unlocking opportunities for our world
class shipbuilding industry to export their innovative
technologies, services and designs around the globe.
“Working in lockstep with business, we will build on our
world-leading maritime capabilities, strengthening our global
reputation as a thriving maritime industrial base and leveraging
our strengths in maritime defence and low-carbon technologies.”
Today the International Trade Secretary will also publish the
Board of Trade’s first paper of 2022, which outlines the huge
opportunities in the maritime sector for boosting exports,
reaching Net Zero and creating high-paying jobs across the
country.
The new paper also outlines how the UK can cement its position as
a world-leading maritime nation by capitalising on its strengths
in technology, innovation, maritime services and regulation.
Ben Murray, Chief Executive of Maritime UK,
said:
“The government’s Maritime Capability Campaign Office can enable
us to unleash our full exporting potential across the globe.
“And what is good for maritime is good for the UK’s coastal
communities, who can become the engine room for Global Britain.
“We will be working closely with government to ensure these
ambitions are met, on our way to becoming the world’s most
competitive maritime nation by 2050.”
Before speaking at the Maritime UK Awards in Glasgow, the Trade
Secretary will also visit A&P Tyneside – the largest
commercial dry dock on the East Coast – marking her first visit
to North East England in her current post.
At A&P the Secretary of State will witness first-hand the
cutting edge of the UK’s shipbuilding and ship repair industries,
and explore options to boost the company’s maritime exports, as
part of the NSS aim to generate a shipbuilding renaissance across
the whole UK.
Global maritime trade levels are expected to treble by 2050 and
the maritime sector already supports more than 220,000 jobs
across the country.
NOTES TO EDITORS
- The National Shipbuilding Office (NSO) is a cross-government
organisation, hosted within the Ministry of Defence, which
reports directly to the Shipbuilding Tsar and will oversee all of
the government’s interests in UK shipbuilding, from coordinating
the long-term pipeline of government vessels to ensuring skills
priorities are aligned across the UK’s entire shipbuilding
enterprise.
- The NSO is central to the refresh of the National
Shipbuilding Strategy, and will take direct ownership of driving
the Strategy’s objectives.
- The Board of Trade will publish its first paper of 2022,
entitled ‘Embracing the Ocean: Delivering the Trade Benefits of
the National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh’ today. The paper will
be available from 17:15, Thursday 10 March online at the
following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/board-of-trade-report-maritime.
