Bradford's electronic giants today demanded cash backing for Yorkshire - instead of investment for foreign firms robbing the area of vital resources.

The heads of booming hi-tech firms Pace and Filtronic say vital scarce resources are being taken from under their noses by foreign companies being enticed to Britain to set up shop.

And they claim local businesses will be the ones to miss out.

Shipley-based Filtronic boss Prof David Rhodes criticised Yorkshire Forward for inviting foreign competitors to the very heart of its core area.

He said its future growth could be hit if foreign investors open factories and start recruiting electronics experts that Filtronic and Pace try to develop.

Regional development agency Yorkshire Forward - which aims to boost local economies - has invited South Korean competitors to look at business opportunities in the county.

Professor Rhodes said from Finland today: "We are spending £250,000 a year and a lot of time and effort on educational courses to increase the number of electronic engineers coming out of our educational establishments.

"Our limitation on growth, ourselves and Pace, is that we can't get enough graduates - there is a world-wide scarcity of them.

"We are competing on a global scale, so what is the purpose of Yorkshire Forward inviting foreign companies to take our scarcest resources which we don't have enough of anyway?

"It's a big problem world-wide finding them and that's why companies set up in other parts of the world. It isn't to do with the cost of labour - it's where you can find the right people."

Prof Rhodes said his company received no Government support for its educational programmes and courses to create the experts of tomorrow.

A spokesman for Pace Microtechnology echoed his comments and added: "We think it is a misguided approach on the part of Yorkshire Forward.

"There is something really good happening in the UK at the moment, particularly in Bradford, and we feel Yorkshire Forward should be supporting it not inviting competitors in."

But a Yorkshire Forward spokesman said the Korean firms were in the UK at the invitation of the Invest in Britain Bureau - a government organisation set up to attract foreign investment.

"This is not a Yorkshire Forward initiative - the companies are on a fact-finding mission all over the country. They have come to look at what possible collaboration partnerships might be available with universities and other industries.''

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