3. Urgent Question: Yr Egin Centre

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 29 November 2016.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 2:32, 29 November 2016

It’s a very interesting question, and I think it is worth reflecting, not just on this model, but also models that are emerging elsewhere in Wales. For example, we cut the ground recently at the Menai Science Park in north-west Wales, and I think that offers a similar approach where you could have vertically integrated systems that drive the growth of an anchor tenant, be it in north-west Wales, Wylfa Newydd, or in north-east Wales, where we announced a similar advanced manufacturing research institute—Airbus. You can have vertically integrated systems that replicate, to some degree, old models from the past, where you had within a single company, everything built, everything provided for, but then they were hollowed out. In the twenty-first century, the key is going to be in linking in university spaces, integrating university spaces, which can offer open, creative space, with businesses large and small, that are then based on not just feeding the requirements of the major companies, the anchor tenants, but also in driving innovation throughout that network.

So, I do think that this model is a very interesting one that we could examine for elsewhere in Wales, but the other point that I would make is that I don’t think we can adopt a single model for everywhere in Wales. I think it’s essential that we take the unique skills and opportunities that exist in each community and then base this sort of hub growth model on those unique elements of Welsh communities.