When I returned to this desk eight years ago after a quarter of a century break, Bradford seemed a much diminished place.

The lack of optimism and confidence about the city's state and prospects was palpable, with some writing it off.

As I exit this role today and head into retirement there is no doubt that much has changed for the better.

There is no longer an overwhelming sense of gloom and despair - although the city of my birth still has many social and economic issues to overcome in a prolonged period of enforced austerity.

The greatest symbol of decline for many years was the infamous city centre 'hole in the ground' on the site of the much delayed Westfield development.

Happily, that was filled a year ago by the opening of the Broadway shopping centre whose retailers are nearly 70 per cent new to Bradford. The development and also saw the return of chain store Debenhams to the city after many years absence.

While it is important to heed the warning from Broadway general manager Ian Ward that the centre should not be seen as Bradford's saviour, it has undoubtedly raised the spirits in this city.

The current addition of a new cinema and restaurants on Broadway is another welcome sign with seven potential tenants chasing four units and underlines the fact that national operators see potential in having a Bradford operation.

Work on the adjacent Xchange retail, leisure and residential development is another sign of renewed confidence.

Once the world's main centre of wool textile production, Bradford retains a higher than average manufacturing base than the rest of the UK, around 22 per cent against 14 per cent.

Making things remains important to the local economy. The oily rag image of engineering and other industries has all but disappeared with factories now bright and clean and operating digitally controlled machine tools.

Historic engineering firm Mansfield Pollard, which designs and produces specialist air cooling equipment for a global customer base, has sprung to prominence under it award-winning female managing director Joanna Robinson.

Its products can be found in more than 80 per cent of the eateries at the Dubai Mall and in hundreds of UK restaurants. The firm, which started in 1866 as a sheet metal company supplying Bradford’s wool textile mills, is playing a key role in encouraging women engineers.

The story I never expected to write was the forthcoming opening of a new Bradford wool spinning mill.

In a welcome development, yarn manufacturer Laxtons is poised to double its manufacturing capacity at a new purpose-built 16,000 sq ft mill at the Sapper Jordan Rossi Park in Otley Road, Baildon, to which it will move from Guiseley next spring.

Digital and IT will provide the biggest growth opportunities for new jobs over the next decade. The Leeds city region Local Enterprise Partnership recently forecast 15 per cent of new jobs would be in this sector - around 4,000 over the next ten years.

The big challenge will be ensuring a supply of skills for companies. And, with Bradford having the UK's youngest population, finding opportunities will remain a major challenge. We live in a skills-led economy with few menial jobs for those of less ability, so finding gainful employment will depend even more on getting a good education and this is an area where Bradford school's must pull up their socks after years of poor performance.

Skills and technology were at the centre of a major deal for US-owned turbocharger manufacturer Borg Warner.

The company, which nearly closed its factory on the Euroway estate in 2009 as the recession buffeted the industry, signed a jobs-boosting contract with Jaguar Land Rover that would see it produce components for petrol engines for the first time with significant exporting potential.

Borg Warner said it would recruit 130 extra skilled people to its then 420 workforce and develop a new skills academy with a £2.3 million grant from the Regional Growth Fund.

In 2015, Saltaire-based set top box and digital TV technology pioneer Pace plc was swallowed up by a US-based technology giant Arris Group Inc, under whose name it now trades.

At the time Pace chairman Alan Leighton said it was the combination of two complementary businesses and would increase Pace's growth platform.

Pace's former headquarters in Salts Mill remains the group's product development hub and hopefully this centre of knowledge and expertise will continue to thrive.

Nearby is the Advanced Digital Institute, a technology company behind a series of pioneering digital initiatives which are changing the way healthcare is delivered, which goes from strength to strength.

Also in Salts Mill is the manufacturing base of Radio Design, an award-winning manufacturer of technology for mobile telephone operators. The company was started by Eric Hawthorn to develop breakthrough technology enabling mobile networks to share transmission masts, significantly reducing their costs.

Radio Design is now a £21m turnover business employing about 240 people locally and another 60 in India and China. It received a Queen’s Award for International Trade this year and was visited by the Duke of York.

Of course, the road back to better times has been a rocky one with many of Bradford's old companies much reduced or gone forever.

These include the historic Empire Stores mail order business which closed in 2008 after 175 years. Founded by Antonio Fattorini, whose jewellery business made the current FA Cup trophy first won by Bradford City in 1911 - and whose upmarket shop in the city centre also disappeared - Empire Stores was a victim on the emergence of online shopping.

It was the UK's first mail order business and closure by its French owners cost around 350 jobs.

Grattan also suffered a period of serious decline as shopping habits changed but the German-owned business has been more resilient. Although a shadow of its former self, it still has around 300 staff at its Little Germany headquarters from where it trades as Freeman Grattan Holdings.

Bradford's largest private sector employer is remains Morrisons. While Sir Ken Morrison's name remains above the door, he retired in 2008 but the 84 year-old remains a significant and influential shareholder in the business founded by his father in 1899.

Anyone who attended Morrisons’ 2014 annual general meeting will never forget his attack on the way the business was being run under chief executive Dalton Philips when he likened its strategy to "bulls--t".

Sir Ken has since expressed confidence in the new regime under chairman Andrew Higginson and chief executive David Potts. Their back-to-basics strategy has revived the UK's fourth largest supermarket - which has been particularly badly dented by the discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Morrisons recently reported a full year of higher sales.

The remedy has been painful with hundreds of head office job cuts, the offloading of its convenience stores operation, which subsequently went bust and a reduced number of supermarkets. Hopefully, Morrisons is back on track.

The list of successful local businesses remains a long one and too many to name here.

But outstanding examples include Acorn Stairlifts at Steeton which has one of its products installed somewhere in the world every 90 seconds; Seabrook Crisps, which is being revived and transformed by its current bosses following a management buyout and business travel specialist Redfern, which moved into larger headquarters last year through growth based on ground-breaking IT. Telecommunications technology business Exa Networks also expanded into Little Germany as it continues to find success in the burgeoning communications sector.

More traditional companies such as brewer Timothy Taylor in Keighley, whose ales have been lauded by celebrities including Madonna, are sticking successfully to their last. Taylor has been joined by a plethora of local rivals in recent years with the growing demand for real ales, including Ilkley Brewery and Bradford Brewery, which reintroduced brewing to the city centre.

Keelham Farm Shop expanded on the back of the growing interest in traceable local produce with a new £4m store in Skipton and the refurbishment of its Bradford store in Thornton.

Motor dealer JCT600 celebrated its 70th anniversary this year. Now a £1.1 billion turnover business now has 50 dealerships and employs around 2,300 people while remaining in family ownership.

Of course, many challenges and uncertainties remain for local businesses - not least what Brexit will actually mean for the economy.

But as I turn off the keyboard for the final time, I remain hopeful that the ingenuity, entrepreneurial spirit and determination which made Bradford a great industrial city will prevail.