A Government Minister has used the launch of a digital growth programme in the North East to forecast that more than 13,000 new jobs in the sector will be created over the next three years.
Digital Economy Minister Chris Philp was speaking at the launch of the North of Tyne Combined Authority’s £10m Digital Growth and Innovation Programme, which aims to support start-ups and help more established digital and tech businesses in the area to scale up.
North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll opened the launch event at The Core, at Newcastle’s Helix, praising the area’s digital sector for creating new jobs, partly through its partnership working.
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It came after a number of successful inward investment announcements in the sector in recent months, with overseas tech firms such as Monstarlabs, Version1 and Arctic Wolf all committing to creating jobs in Newcastle.
Mr Philp said: “The future really does look bright for this region. Analysis provided for a digital ecosystems report suggested the North East has the potential to grow by at least £460m in annual GDA by 2025 and to create an additional 13,800 jobs.
“I have no doubt that through the hard work of NTCA and its partners this potential will be realised.”
The event, which was attended by around 200 people, heard from a panel that included Lisa Cooney, product and service manager at Trendbible; Matthew Lumsden, CEO at Connected Energy; Helga Alvarez, CTO at Leaf; James Hall, executive director at Monstarlabs and Rob Hamilton, chief economist at the Combined Authority.
Susan Bell, former Waterstons chief executive who is working with Combined Authority on the programme, chaired the panel.
Mr Hamilton said: “It was a brilliant launch event and it was so encouraging to see so many people there, representing so many great tech companies and organisations, both large and small.
“It was interesting to hear global perspectives, but also personal stories. The programme aims to create jobs and opportunities, but also to highlight the importance of the regional tech sector and to raise its profile even further.”
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