Part of 2. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 19 July 2017.
As I’ve said, we will be assessing the effectiveness of the commission by the end of this Assembly term. We will be establishing it by the end of this year. I must disagree with the assertion made by the Member that Wales may appear not to be open for business given the latest results for inward investment, which show, I believe, that it was the third most successful year. Indeed, investment from within the UK into Wales reached a record high. We are continuing with our efforts to bring in major projects. Just last week we were able to announce the investment by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles—a huge investment that will bring monumental change to Newport and the economy of south-east Wales, creating 300 jobs, but also, crucially, offering enormous potential for expansion. That’s something that we will build upon. Since May of this year, we have announced, through our support, the creation of more than 500 jobs in this current year, and we are also working to establish many more jobs across—and that’s just in Wales in this past eight weeks. But we are also working with a pipeline of interests at the moment to create further employment opportunities in the months to come.