Masroor: Hello today I will be interviewing Abdul Bashir from Blackrock global financial company, hello Abdul can

you tell us a bit about yourself. Abdul Bashir: Hello Masroor firstly thank you for allowing me to participate in this interview as you mentioned I work for a global financial company called Blackrock the area of finance that you know the company I work for predominantly is in asset management but before I go into I tell you a bit about Blackrock its probably worth me just giving you a high level overview of a bit of information of my background and my career so far really, Ive up until recently Ive lived in Oldham, I grew up in Oldham and I did my secondary education as well as my A levels within Oldham and in fact I attended the Oldham Sixth Form College for my A levels ,since doing my A levels I done a degree in mathematics and and a n.s.c in actuarial finance in terms of the career Ive had Ive done paper rounds when I was 13,stacked shelves part time at Tesco for a number of years whist I was studding and then worked for a short period after leaving university at a call centre as an account management agent Ive also worked as a business analyse for a global i.t firm called Accenture for about 2 and half years since then I worked for a company called towers Watson as an investment consultant for providing advice and risk management into large institutional clients such as pension funds and more recently Ive been working for a company called black rock where an asset management company Im an account manager for institutional investors so what that means is companys such as pension funds or wealth funds need a place to invest their money and essentially Blackrock offers a number of different ways in different vehicles that allows investors to invest their money and hopefully make a return the other aspect that we are quiet active is in managing clients risk. Masroor: Anyway question one do you think Oldham has survived the recession? Abdul Bashir: I guess its a question that actually very relevant right now Ive like to just quote a couple of stats that I have taken from the Oldham economical view which is produced by the Oldham council I think once every twice a year so as of 30th of September 2012 the unemployment rate in Oldham was 5.8% which was actually the highest rate in the greater Manchester region, Manchester as a whole the unemployment rate was 4.9% so quiet a big difference there really about 1% also over the year to over the 12 months to 30th September. The country as a whole experienced a decrease in unemployment whereas Oldham unemployment rate actually increased slightly so I guess the reason for quoting these sorts of statistics is just to give you a feel for the situation for Oldham specifically you know at a local level, what this really means errm what I think this means really if we look at the economic situation in Oldham is worse than the national average if we actually think back you know to sort of like go back a number of years historically the industry that Oldham was found in like the cotton mills have been in decline over the past 40 years or so and Oldham really had to adapt like many other northern towns to growing their economy in other ways so I guess what that ,what I think that means for in terms of the recession is that Oldham will eventually survive the recession but it would take longer than the rest of the country I think thats because many of the areas in Oldham are actually deprived and there is a very high unemployment in parts of Oldham and a large proportion of the local economy is based on sort of Manuel labour so what that means is a lot of the highly skilled work force are

attracted else Where as there is a less availability of those types of jobs available in Oldham so all in all I think this will mean that Oldhams recovery from the recession take longer than the national average and it will also depends on how the bigger cities around Oldham perform economically such as Manchester and Leeds being key cities that are close Oldham Masroor: As a former Oldham boy now living in London how does a big city show its powers in comparison to a small town like Oldham Abdul Bashir: Firstly, Id just like to make an observation which is er you know which I think is very important, even for a city London is like a few others in the world its a mega city so comparing Oldham to London you know youre actually talking about two places at the opposite end of the spectrum so I having said that, some of the key differences Really relate to The size of the place so firstly the population size of Oldham is I think around about a hundred thousand and the population size of London is ten million approximately so thats a huge huge factor so a massive factor of about a hundred times, yeah? So even, even er so if we just compare if we actually think about any other large cities say a small town I doesnt have to be Oldham and it doesnt have to be London it could just be Manchester and Oldham say or even London err the things that in my opinion that allow a large city to err thrive or have a better opportunity to thrive economically relate to the following factors firstly I mentioned the population size, so with population size that adds to diversity you got people from all over the world in the same place and having a diverse population generates different types of ideas, different types of thinking so idea generation and entrepreneurial spirit I think it a good environment for that also greater mix of people from different parts of the world would provide different skills and also having more people around just provide added competition so people have to raise their game so the skill levels of individuals erm you know you have a larger spectrum of skill levels and in fact you know you probably have more skilled people err in those areas the other key factor believe is infrastructure so Londons Transport err you know Transport Network airports you know errm you know train system, Underground systems, Bus system you know and you know things like taxis and stuff you know are second to non-its got excellent transport services its also got services to that provide information and logistics for businesses so having the right sort of infrastructure is very important for businesses setting up and also for businesses growing and err businesses staying in that local area so infrastructure is a very big component err the other aspect somewhere like London or Manchester is that it gets a lot of visitors so a lot of tourism so that t generates trade in itself and lastly and just having a lot of people in the same place derives the local economy what I mean by that, is that people who are living their obviously need to eat and sleep and have recreational activates so theyll be spending on local businesses and that obviously creates money for the local population. Masroor: the metro link is being developed in Oldham do you think this will help Oldham economic state financially? Bashir: yh as well the sort of answer to that I think is yes in terms of why I think this is that I mentioned about investment in transport and infrastructure are very important for businesses and people It would defiantly be a positive for Oldham mainly because of the

following factors really firstly work in terms of building the metro link obviously creates jobs and once the metro-link is up and running will provide on-going jobs for the local population so just by creating the metro-link actually you know helps the economy errm but more than that its it makes the place be more attractive location for businesses to set up as employees can actually travel to the location easily and people can actually travel elsewhere if needs be quite easily so its attractive for businesses because it is a good reliable transport for and you know Ive already we Ive touched on the point about tourism my earlier answer to the previous question but again having good transport links means that more people are probably more likely to come and visit and therefore hopefully you will be able to generate some income to tourism as well. Masroor: There are a total of 150 takeaways in Oldham; looking at that figure do you think the takeaway industry is a successful business in Oldham? Bashir: while I believe Oldham has a good take away industry; I think this statistic on its own could be very misleading also I made a number of observations really just thinking about this statistic on its own and these are just intuitive thoughts really firstly I dont think the population of Oldham could successfully actually sustain a 150 takeaways, 150 takeaways for a small town just seems like a such a large number so I think the so the other observation I make is from the demographic makeup of Oldham theirs err you know whilst there is a lot of diversity there, theres clearly a higher than average population of Bangladeshis and Pakistanis and these groups of people from these ethnicities without generalising too much are quite prevalent in the takeaway industry so that may explain why theres more takeaways just purely because people with those skills are more concentrated in the Oldham region thirdly you know which is actually positive the 150s number because its so large may indicate high levels of you know may indicate that there may be high levels of competition which on the positive side obviously could drive up standards you could end up with better quality takeaways if everyones competing on the negative side high levels of competition would drive down prices which means theirs low profit margins for the businesses that are their also the other positive really you know having lots of the same type of businesses it would drive innovation and diversity with in that sector by diversity I mean different types of takeaways so you can have you know Indian takeaways you know classical sort of err kebab houses so you know Chinese takeaways, takeaways specialising in Italian food and different whole wide range of takeaways coming from Oldham and doing all the vast ray of different types of food that are available overall though I think Oldham have a takeaway industry and its very competitive which means that only the best takeaways would actually survive for long so errm in terms iof going back to the question is it successful business in Oldham I think it is successful but out of the 150 takeaways there will be a large number of those takeaways that may not be as successful as the best ones their does that answer your question. Masroor: errm yep

Masroor: Lastly where do you see Oldham in 10years time financially? Bashir: my personal view really is that Oldham will take a lot longer to fully overcome this effect this recent recession however having sed that I am optimistic that after the next 3-5 years theres a good chance that Oldhams Economy will improve investment in the metro link and the diversity of the population are definite positives also since being there oh well since growing up there I think there is a greater awareness of the importance of education also I feel that people from Oldham are quite tuff and hardy and you know thats positive also its geographical location being close to Manchester and Leeds I think obviously it is very positive for Oldham so it can obviously from the growth of industrys in Manchester and Oldham and having good transport links in sorry Manchester and Leeds and having good transport links to these locations is going to be important in the future so in 10 years time am really optimistic and hopeful really that Oldham would be in a good economic state. Masroor: ok Thank you Abdul have you got any advice for peiole that want to get into financial err. Abdul Bashir: yes in terms of Advice really the one thing that I would say you know to work really really hard and focus on your education yes everybody needs a little bit of luck but really those people who work really really hard will make their own luck and you know if you want to work in a financial organisation or any other organisation really you need to have the drive and the determination to follow through and I cant stress this enough education is very very important whatever you choose to do you know work hard at it and try your best really and that way really the skys the limit for you. Masroor: ok abdul thank you for participating yh it is now the end of our interview with you has you got any final words you would like to say. Abdul Bashir: or not really my comments are all the advice probably the most useful thing I can probably say am obviously happy to have participated if any of you listeners or yourself have any questions feel free to ask thank you. Masroor: Bye Abdul Abdul: Bye Masroor