THE North-East can be the “go-to place” for lucrative process sector investment, an industry organisation’s new boss has claimed.

Iain Wright says there is great potential to cultivate fresh growth across the industry, which supports thousands of jobs across Teesside and the wider region.

Mr Wright, who has just taken over as chief executive at the North-East Process Industry Cluster (Nepic), told The Northern Echo talks are ongoing aimed at attracting new firms and supporting existing operators to strengthen ties with the region.

The former Hartlepool MP said he wants to build on the “vote of confidence”

shown by Sabic and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, which have both recently announced major investments in the North-East, adding he will also devote a great deal of focus on helping attract the next generation of workers into the petrochemical sector.

Mr Wright, who has taken over at Nepic from the retiring Dr Stan Higgins, said he was excited by his new role, adding he will look to use his experience and knowledge accrued in Westminster for the benefit of his new employer.

He told the Echo: “I know Nepic from the work I had done as a local MP and have always been impressed by what they have done.

“In many respects, I think we hide our achievements under a bushel, but this sector is a tremendous driver of economic prosperity in our area.

“I’m not interested in an obsolete or declining industrial sector, I think this is going to be the basis of our future economic prosperity.

“I think we are at the start of huge opportunities when it comes to the chemical and process industries and further down the stream in respect of pharmaceuticals.”

Mr Wright, who led an inquiry into Sport Direct’s working practices while chairman of the Business Select Committee as an MP, pointed to Sabic and Fujifilm as examples of the strength of the process sector in the region.

Sabic has modified its flagship Cracker plant, which is based at Wilton, near Redcar, and makes goods for food packaging, to take US ethane gas as a manufacturing material.

Bosses say the move has already provided the business with fresh impetus, since it now has another feedstock source - alongside naphtha, propane, butane and condensates - in a fluctuating energy market.

Fujifilm, meanwhile, has taken 15,000sq ft of space at the Wilton Centre after bosses revealed £7m plans to extend development work at a site close to its existing base in Billingham, near Stockton.

Mr Wright said such investments were proof of the area’s repute in the process sector and a great platform from upon which to build.

He added: “Some of the investments recently, from Fujifilm, and Sabic in terms of the cracker, herald a really exciting time in the process industry on Teesside and in the wider North-East.

“It gives the message that if you’re thinking about investing in the UK, it is safe to do so from a finance and business point of view.

“I think because of that vote of confidence it will then attract further investment in.”