{"id":48007,"date":"2014-09-16T06:49:05","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T06:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=48007"},"modified":"2014-09-16T06:49:05","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T06:49:05","slug":"tech-firms-want-digital-ministers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/09\/tech-firms-want-digital-ministers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech firms want ‘digital ministers’"},"content":{"rendered":"
An influential group of major technology firms is calling on the UK to appoint “digital ministers” in every government department.<\/p>\n
TechUK – which represents more than 850 companies – also demanded rules to allow more skilled technology workers into the country.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got to make sure the UK becomes a hub for digital skills,” said TechUK chief executive Julian David.<\/p>\n
The proposals will be presented to ministers on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Mr David said current options for migrating digital works – such as a special Entrepreneurs’ Visa to help start-ups – was not going far enough.<\/p>\n
“My members tell me it helps, but start-ups find it difficult to plot their way through the bureaucracy and the cost.”<\/p>\n
Bigger companies, he said, complained the process took too long.<\/p>\n
More than London<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr David praised the efforts of organisations like Tech City UK, the government quango helping technology start-ups in the Silicon Roundabout area of east London.<\/p>\n But he said the digital economy must be a concern for the whole country.<\/p>\n “We’ve got fantastic capability in clusters around the country.<\/p>\n “When you look at places like Cambridge, there’s a pattern of success there for growing digitally-focused, very large, very successful companies such as [chip maker] Arm Holdings.”<\/p>\n