6. What assessment has the Minister made of the potential impact of the fourth industrial revolution on jobs in Wales? OAQ(5)0088(EI)

This is an extremely interesting subject matter and the Welsh Government is fully committed to harnessing the opportunities that the fourth revolution presents. Our support for cutting-edge technology, research and development will ensure that innovation is a major economic enabler for Wales.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. The coming automation and robotics present huge opportunities, but also very real threats to jobs in Wales. On Monday night in Liverpool, the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, gave a speech in which he said some 15 million jobs could be affected by automation. Using the formula that the Bank of England used in coming up with that figure, I’ve calculated that some 700,000 jobs in Wales could be at risk from automation. This is a crude calculation, but would the Cabinet Secretary commit to doing a proper study of the impact to understand the threat, but also the very real opportunity from this fourth industrial revolution?

Yes, I most certainly would. I’m pleased to be able to tell the Member today that the Wales European Funding Office understands that Industry Wales, who, can I put on record, have been incredibly helpful in teaching me something about industry 4.0, are working in partnership with a number of Welsh universities and are planning to submit an industry 4.0-related bid for funding under the current European regional development fund round and call for research and innovation proposals, which will close on 31 January. I hope that that bid is successful, because I think it would deliver exactly what the Member has called for.

In addition to this, I’m pleased to say that the innovation team within Welsh Government is actively engaged with the recently launched UK knowledge transfer networks for manufacturing initiative, which is aimed specifically at realising the potential of the fourth industrial revolution. The Member is absolutely right to highlight both the opportunities and the challenges and threats posed by I4, and if we look to France, perhaps, as a model where we could learn some very significant lessons in how to move towards an automated economy, provided we can make that shift fast enough, I’m firmly of the belief that we can stand on the side of greater opportunities rather than threats.