Britain will invest 2 billion pounds in the automobile industry to support the development of electric vehicles
CTOnews.com, November 26 (Xinhua) at present, car companies in China and the United States have a first-mover advantage in the new energy vehicle industry, while all other newcomers are bound to make greater efforts to catch up.
Jeremy Hunt, UK chancellor of the exchequer, said he would invest 4.5 billion pounds (CTOnews.com note: about 40.5 billion yuan) in eight manufacturing sectors, including cars and green industries, to support sectors critical to UK economic growth, of which the car industry accounts for a large part.
It is said that the money will be put in place within five years from 2025, of which 2 billion pounds (currently about 18 billion yuan) will be devoted to the automotive industry, 975 million pounds (currently about 8.775 billion yuan) to the aerospace industry, 960 million pounds (currently about 8.64 billion yuan) to clean energy and 520 million pounds (currently about 4.68 billion yuan) to life sciences.
"We will use 4.5 billion pounds to leverage more money from the private sector, which in turn will boost our economic growth and create more skilled, higher-paying jobs in new industries that will continue to exist," said Tuyuan Pexels Hunt.
Hunt also told reporters that the commitment was "new funding" rather than a redistribution of previously announced spending, and that the UK preferred targeted support rather than a package of subsidies. "We will not be caught up in a global subsidy competition," he said. "
As of the third quarter, business investment in the UK was 4 per cent higher than pre-epidemic levels-better than Germany but slightly worse than France and the US, according to a Reuters analysis of OECD data.
Earlier on Friday, the Equality and Progressive Party (IPPR), a self-proclaimed think-tank advocating progressive policies, published a report showing that years of inconsistent industrial strategies had seriously hurt corporate investment in the UK.
George Dibu, director of the Centre for Economic Justice at IPPR, said: "it is time to define Britain's strategic goals, such as developing green manufacturing and services needed in the future, and then use all available tools to achieve that goal."
