Working closely with the Osaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the UKTI Japan ICT team in Osaka held a seminar on 26 July to explain to the region's leading IT companies the strengths of the UK ICT industry and its importance in the new UK Government's export-led recovery strategy.
The team took advantage of one of the thankfully regular visits to Japan by Chet Babla, UKTI ICT Specialist for Japan, to give an overview of the UK ICT industry and the importance it plays in the new administration's approach to countering the current economic issues.
Chet kicked off by speaking about the challenges the global ICT industry is facing and what it should be doing to meet them. Innovation (cost-effective commercial solutions); collaboration (with partners/customers/competitors/government); customer-centricity ("think global, act local"); and corporate and social responsibility (eg low carbon, community awareness, ethical sourcing).
Chet then spoke about the UK's strengths eg semiconductors, electronics and electronics systems, software, healthcare/wellness, clean tech and digital media. The UK has a proven track record in these areas and they will continue to provide numerous opportunities overseas including Japan. Chet then briefly ran over some of the initiatives the UK Government has announced in the areas of carbon reduction, plastic electronics and smart grid technology.
The floor was then handed over to three British companies to talk about their own products and services. Mr Takafumi Nishijima (President, ARM K.K (Japan)) gave a very interesting talk about basically the rise and rise of the company since its birth in Cambridge back in 1990 (if you are reading this on a mobile device then an ARM microprocessor is probably in there). He was then followed by Mr Shigeki Matsue (President, Imagination Technologies K.K (Japan)). Established in 1985, the company is now the world's leading semiconductor IP supplier. Again their products are to be found in scores of different mobile devices.
Both companies touched upon the point Chet made about the need for the industry to seek mutually beneficial collaborations. They were doing this and such an approach was key to the successes they had achieved so far.
Finally, Dr Liz Williams (Director, Valideus) outlined the impending liberalisation of the internet domain system and the options for brand owners in applying for their own gTLD (generic Top Level Domain) registration. Liz's company can offer advice on the whole process (ie from "to apply or not to apply" to final submission of application). We have been working with Valideus now for about 9 months (through the OMIS service) to help them target organisations and companies in Japan.
Finally, in keeping with the spirit of the event, my colleague Miyamatsu-san (a self-confessed IT geek!) was busy "tweeting" during the seminar to his rather impressive list of contacts all around the world. Needless to say that the device he was using contained technologies produced by you know who.
For further details of the above seminar or the work of the UKTI Japan ICT team please contact David Abbott (david.abbott@fco.gov.uk)
David Abbott
Deputy Consul General
Osaka