LONDON: The Rail Supply Group (RSG) has today announced that the organisation it set up to develop strategies to promote UK rail abroad, the Exports Leadership Group (ELG), has met for the first time.
Yesterday, the ELG – which brings together leading figures within the rail industry, trade bodies and government departments in order to drive rail exports – held its first meeting, attended by rail minister Paul Maynard.
Its creation and debut meeting follows the launch of the Infrastructure Exports Group, which brings the leaders of multiple infrastructure leaders from a number of industries together, earlier this month.
The group is headed up by CEO of Amey, Andy Milner – who RTM spoke to in our latest edition – and represents a “fresh, co-ordinated approach to increasing exports and inward investment”.
It will do this by scoping priority markets for better industry insight into opportunities, as well as developing market strategies and associated delivery plans.
It is also expected to enhance related export support and funding mechanisms, develop an approach for UK and international consortia to improve their UK market share, and review synergies across other sectors for potential infrastructure opportunities.
A central aim of the ELG will also be to enhance the existing communications tools available to promote the UK rail sector overseas.
Maynard said: “The UK rail industry leads the world in rail expertise and we want to help promote our business’s skills and knowledge overseas.
“The Rail ELG is a great opportunity for the rail industry to collaborate, and to work with the Government to increase exports all over the world.”
Milner also commented that it is an exciting time to work in the industry and harness the “incredible potential for growth at home and abroad”.
“The fresh collaborative approach adopted by the Rail ELG is a real opportunity to help the UK become a global market leader,” he argued.
“As a group, we especially look forward to working with the rail supply chain to improve the promotion of international opportunities, increase support for exports and develop funding mechanisms that better involve new exporters.”
