Item 6 on our agenda this afternoon is a debate on the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee report, 'Industry 4.0—the future of Wales'. I call on the Chair of the committee to move the motion—Russell George. 

Motion NDM6828 Russell George

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

Notes the report of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee on its inquiry, 'Industry 4.0—the future of Wales', which was laid in the Table Office on 17 August 2018.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the motion in my name. 

Now, all the inquiries that we do as a committee are interesting in their own way, but of all the inquiries that we've done on the committee since I've been the Chair of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, I have to say this is the one where I have had my eyes the most opened—this is the work in regard to automation. We've heard some witnesses telling us of research showing that tens of thousands of jobs are going to be lost due to automation, and we also heard a study showing us that tens of thousands of jobs are going to be created as a result of automation. Now, I think I'm someone who is optimistic by nature, so I'm embracing the fourth industrial revolution, but there's a single takeaway from our work—it's that a government that fails to prepare for automation is preparing to fail. Of course, it's not just Government that this challenge is for; this is for business and service providers across the country. Automation is coming and we all need to think about what that means for us.

I was disappointed by aspects of the Welsh Government's response to our report, which might strike you as a bit odd because the Government accepted 11 of our 12 recommendations. There were no recommendations accepted in principle, which I was pleased to note, and we did have just one rejected. But as a committee, we're clear that our aim and purpose is to drive change. Our recommendations are intended to change and improve Government policy. So, when our recommendations are accepted but the accompanying text makes it clear that our concerns are not changing behaviour, then I'm concerned. 

Recommendation 1 is a case in point: the committee calls for work

'to ensure Wales is the provider, not just the consumer of emerging technologies.'

But the response lists what the Government has done and it talks about the work already under way by Professor Phil Brown. It is not clear that we are in agreement here, so perhaps the Cabinet Secretary could respond to that in his closing remarks. In fairness, the Brown review may indeed cover the issues, and I will eagerly await publication to see what recommendations he makes. I'm fairly sure that Professor Brown's work won't be the end piece of work that needs to be done, and I hope that the Government stands ready to respond to any gaps or next steps he identifies.

Recommendation 11 follows a similar pattern of acceptance without fresh action. The recommendation is clear that we want to see more of the highest level researchers doing their work here in Wales and retaining those skills for the Welsh economy. The financial implications listed in the Government's response say that there would only be additional costs

'Should we launch a fund'.

Well, that's what the recommendation is calling for, Cabinet Secretary. So, I hope that the current budget round gives you the ability to do that.

I will look at recommendation 4, which is the only one that was rejected. This recommendation came from a suggestion by Professor Calvin Jones of Cardiff University that there might be real benefits for Wales in creating a model community to test emerging technologies in a Welsh context. It was an idea that received enthusiasm from others we talked to during the course of the inquiry, and the Government's response says it is working on a number of proposals rather than one specific location. Now, I do have sympathy for the idea that there may be benefits in testing in a number of locations rather than one single community. The important thing is less whether there is one or 10 sites; what matters is that there are sites in Wales that allow cutting-edge technology to be tested and developed to suit Wales's needs. I hope that these opportunities will be pursued. We won't get a second chance to be at the forefront of these emerging technologies.

I am pleased that recommendation 12 has seen immediate action. It was, I think, quite bizarre to learn that just one of the three regional skills partnerships had identified automation and artificial intelligence in their plans for future requirements, so I look forward to seeing the fruits of the Cabinet Secretary's letter in that regard.

The committee intended this report to be the beginning rather than an end to discussion, and the stakes could not be higher, but I'm particularly interested in Members' comments this afternoon and I'm looking forward to the Cabinet Secretary's response, particularly in regards to—. Perhaps he could outline in more detail some of the comments I've made about the recommendations I've put forward today and discussed.

I just wanted to concentrate on recommendations 3, 7 and 9 in my response. With regard to recommendation 3, which asks what the Welsh Government could do to harness expertise and contacts across Wales and within the Welsh diaspora, one of the things I'd say is there is progress being made in Wales in this area in universities, and they are involving expertise from across Wales and outside. For example, just earlier this year, I helped launch the Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cardiff school of technologies, which is one example of how higher education institutions can harness research and academic expertise.

I also last week helped launch the Supercomputing Wales programme, which is a £15 million programme of investment from Welsh Government and European funding, which is combining Cardiff University, Swansea University, Aberystwyth and Bangor universities to look at various different projects to develop computing intelligence to develop projects. One of the things that was most interesting about that, I found, was that it wasn't just about end products, such as the super car and microbiology; it's also about how we understand social science. Professor Roger Whitaker had a paper on networks and how computers can help us understand networks of social interactions between human beings. This is exactly what I was talking about in the previous debate when I referred to social capital. So, computers are helping us understand the complex socially constructed environment in which we live. I think that's massive and hugely interesting in how we develop our understanding of society. So, social science is playing a role there.

With regard to recommendation 7, which urges the Welsh Government to consider the role it should play in encouraging connected and autonomous vehicle—CAV—companies to share pre-crash data to accelerate learning, I just want to draw the Chamber's attention to page 36 of the report. We had a very interesting exchange with Dr Nieuwenhuis, who told the committee that,

'a lot of cars out there are probably hackable today'

—connected and autonomous vehicles are probably hackable today—

'in fact, some of them have been hacked. So, what we need to avoid is a scenario whereby somebody with evil intent could suddenly hack tens of thousands of cars and use them to run over people in cities or something like that, which, theoretically, would be possible.'

I'd say it's not even theoretically possible: it's feasible; and certainly something that is entirely plausible in the environment in which we live today. In the Welsh Government's response, they say that regulation affecting CAV is non-devolved to Wales and, therefore, Welsh Government officials will engage with UK Government via the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Depending on the pace at which this technology develops, this may not always be the case, and I'm hoping that the current devolution settlement we've got won't be the permanent one. And should the Welsh Government ever take responsibility for this, then it's important that we keep our eye on what is changing in this area.

And, finally—. If I can find my papers—. I'm all over the place because I was preparing for the previous debate as well. Finally, with recommendation 9, it states that,

'In developing its vision for post compulsory education, the Welsh Government should refocus and redevelop its support for lifelong learning, creating new and accessible ways for workers at risk of displacement by automation in the first waves to retrain and upskill.'

And one of the things—. The main concern of the Welsh Government's response is the personal learning account pilot scheme, which would fund personal vocational retraining in sectors with a skills shortage. Now, that's all very well, but people need to know that their contribution has more than just a monetary value and that the contribution that they have to make will be valued when they leave education. And I would have liked to have heard more from the Welsh Government on that specific area as to how we are going to develop the vision within post-compulsory education and training. The Government will be developing legislation on this—on post-compulsory education and training—in the near future, and I think we need to understand that industry 4.0 will play a huge role in the development of education and training. And, I think, on recommendation 9, the Welsh Government's response falls a little bit short as to what I would expect to see, which, sort of, echoes the Chair of the committee's comments in his opening remarks.

I think it remains to be seen whether this is the swansong for me as a committee member in responding to this report, but—[Interruption.] Okay, calm yourself.

But I think the committee Chair was absolutely right: I think this has been one of the most fascinating and most far-reaching of reports. Just to focus in on one of the recommendations that the Chair referred to in terms of this idea of creating a test bed, I think this is an incredible opportunity for us, and I think the point about a test bed in a particular place—the real opportunity is actually in the combination of technology. So, actually, test beds exist, don't they, and living labs for particular ideas? And the idea of smart city pilot projects, they exist across the world. The interesting idea about building a cross-technology test bed, if you like—. People refer to it as building a city or a town from the internet up, fast forwarding the future, and it's the interconnection with the different technologies and building an urban laboratory where you can see the interaction between the power of mass-produced sensors and cloud computing and driverless cars, et cetera, all being built out in the same place. And there are, of course—. This is beginning to happen. So, in the eastern waterfront of Toronto at the moment, Sidewalk Labs, which is Google's urban innovations subsidiary company, is building an urban test bed, the first of its kind, for $50 million, just to give people a quantum of what we're talking about. Bill Gates is doing the same in Belmont, Arizona—an $80-million project there, which is combining these technologies for the first time. So, it's happening in the United States. No-one has built one in Europe yet. There was a proposal to do so in Portugal recently, but that hasn't as yet happened. Certainly no-one's done one in a rural context either. There are different questions about the rural context that Calvin Jones referred to in some of his remarks.

Of course, it's not just a technology test bed, it's a social innovation test bed, because you can't really test technology until, actually, you put the humans into the picture as well. It's how people interact with technology that is one of the key questions, and that's why the exciting thing about building a real test bed, which is a test bed at a human scale in a new planned community, is that it allows you to actually capture that knowledge. It's why the technology companies themselves are investing in this because they can see that, actually, if you're able to capture that data, then it actually provides you with a platform for innovation, which is very exciting indeed.

Why don't we build the first one in Europe here in Wales? The kind of figures that I've talked about there, they're not beyond the realms of our capacity, are they? And, actually, that would give us a brand. In some sense, what you're doing is building a showcase; you're building an open exhibition area, really, for Wales's offer in terms of AI technology. And, actually, $50 to $100 million, that's not a bad investment compared to some of the other things that we often invest in in terms of our economic development strategy. So, I would urge the Cabinet Secretary to look again at this. I've previously suggested—look—you could actually combine it with a bid for an expo. You don't have to go for the big one, but you could go for the smaller one, the intermediate one, which are built around specific themes. In 2027, for example, you could say, 'Well, actually, the community of the future, the AI community of the future, could be the theme', and you could build the test bed, effectively, as the expo site, and then it could continue as this kind of urban laboratory in future.

A couple of other things that we could do: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this week, has actually announced creating the world's first AI college. It took us 20 years in Wales to create a software university—I remember the pamphlet when it was first put out. Why don't we leapfrog the future and actually build an AI college? That could be a very, very exciting opportunity for us in Wales.

I totally agree with the need for a fund. Just to give you an idea, a city in China—Tianjin—has got a $16 billion fund for AI. That's just one city in China; Shanghai has got exactly the same. Both of them together are spending more on AI in that fund than we are doing throughout the whole of the European Union. If that doesn't smack us into action, then nothing will.

As previous speakers have noted, not only are we seeing existential changes to the Welsh economy, just as the economy undergoes changes—some good, some bad—so too does the world of work. The jobs of the future will belong not just to another time from the jobs of the past, in their opportunities, challenges and requirements they will also belong to another world.

I've enjoyed contributing to this inquiry, which, as the Chair has reminded us, is meant to be the start of a conversation about how we can navigate that future, and although the phrase has become something of a cliché, how we can ensure it is properly human centred. This is key to our ninth recommendation, which challenges the Welsh Government to put the retraining and upskilling of workers at the heart of its lifelong learning policy. The witnesses who spoke to us were clear in their evidence that low-skilled workers are most likely to be affected by automation and AI.

But women face an especial risk in the short term, for example, in the retail sector, where we have seen the rise of the self-service checkout. Incidentally, new research shows shipments of self-checkouts have continued to increase, with numbers up by 14 per cent for a second consecutive year. Moreover, we still have a task to do in identifying the skills of the future to look at demand and the types of jobs that might be required in any given locality. Here, there will be a key role to play for regional skills boards.

Furthermore, we need to develop a triangular system of exchange between employers, HE and FE, as Professor Richard Davies suggested in his evidence to us. We also need to understand how we can engage with those hardest-to-reach groups, who are perhaps most in need of upskilling, and I think there's a key role to play here for adult community education, particularly in that sector's ability to engage and develop community links. As this recommendation is key, I'm encouraged that not only have Ministers accepted it, but they have started to take action to meet this challenge. Lifelong learning must be just that. We should encourage a culture that recognises this and offers the resources and opportunities for progression, so I look forward to the launch of the personal learning account pilot next year.

Developing the skills we need should also make it easier for Wales to meet recommendation 1. This recognises that we need to ensure our economy produces as much as it consumes emerging technologies. At its most ambitious, perhaps we could reclaim the mantle of 'workshop of the world'. Evidence from the Confederation of British Industry and Professor Calvin Jones sketched out ways in which we could do this. Our universities have a key role to play here, and I was struck, on our visit to Swansea University, to see how that particular institution is responding to automation. Its engineering department has trebled in size. Its computer science department is undergoing similar growth. This must also be a key objective of the city deal programme, enabling that regional approach to the economy to be taken. 

In the deliberations that led to recommendation 6, a made-in-Wales approach to precision agriculture, we took evidence on the ways in which this could benefit small farms. We have a clear need for this. We know the average size of a Welsh farm is just 48 hectares, and 54 per cent of Welsh farms are smaller than 20 hectares in size. However, its benefits are even more widely applicable than this.

I recently met with a company called CEA Research and Development. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, 'CEA' stands for 'controlled environment agriculture', and this is a form of hydroponics that grows crops in a controlled, engineered environment. CEA Research and Development have ambitions, in collaboration with the Association for Vertical Farming, to open a new research and development facility to carry out R&D of engineering systems for the CEA industry in my constituency. There are numerous benefits to a CEA: no requirements for pesticide, better use of land, reduced water consumption, minimising of food miles, and, of course, insulation from what can be the very unpredictable Welsh weather. Indeed, crop failure and waste could be eliminated, and the duration from seed to product could be a little as a quarter of that under traditional agriculture. CEA Research and Development said Wales is a perfect location for this in terms of access to physical resources and, equally important, first rate academic facilities. I hope the Welsh Government will give this due consideration as part of the suite of actions it outlines in its response to the recommendation, and I look forward to revisiting aspects of this vitally important topic later in the term.

Can I refer back for just a moment, Dirprwy Lywydd, to the previous debate? Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with all the sentiments so eloquently put forward by Lee Waters, and, indeed, by all the other contributors, we must not forget that the public sector funds that will form the basis of the foundational economy can only be provided by a strong, industrial-based economy in Wales, which leads me on to my contribution to this present debate. 

The future of industry in Wales is at a crossroads, and the decisions we make now will drastically change the Welsh economy for better or for worse. Do we embrace the new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and potentially reap the financial rewards? Or do we risk falling behind those nations that are already embracing this technology? This is why it is imperative that we, in our position of responsibility, set the foundations for those new businesses to thrive, while ensuring that workers and established businesses have the support needed to embrace this new technology, thus ensuring no-one is left behind in Wales.

One of the biggest and most understandable fears of people faced with the introduction of new technology, such as artificial intelligence, is the threat of job losses. This is particularly so amongst low-skilled workers. Future Advocacy predicts that the proportion of jobs at high risk of automation by the early 2030s varies from 22 per cent to over 39 per cent. David Hagendyk, the director for Wales of the Learning and Work Institute, highlights this fear, stating that

'low-skilled workers will be the most affected by automation and artificial intelligence'.

However, the threat of job losses could, if handled properly, create a golden opportunity, an opportunity to upskill and retrain workers in skills that could not only accelerate the creation of new jobs, but could also gradually create a better quality of life, not only for themselves but for their families and communities too. Although the process of training these workers in unfamiliar and technical roles may initially be a costly exercise, it will prove to be hugely cost-effective in the future by safeguarding jobs and introducing a new and better skilled workforce. It is also the perfect opportunity to call upon the experience of already-existing tech and cyber companies, whilst utilising the expertise present in our world-class universities. With the help of these institutions, companies and industries venturing into automation can gain valuable training and insight. This will have the added bonus of keeping the training within Wales itself.

The opportunity to upskill and train cannot be limited to the current workforce. We, as law and policy makers, have a duty to prepare the next generation of Wales's workforce. It has been estimated that 65 per cent of children who entered primary school in September will end up working in job roles that are yet to exist. By failing to invest in them today, we risk jeopardising not only their future, but also the future of Wales, as high-tech companies may be forced to look for suitably qualified employees outside Wales. Whilst it is true that the decisions to create employment and bring new and exciting industries to Wales may be beyond our immediate control, we can, by developing and nurturing new skills in future generations, encourage industry to view Wales as the destination for innovative business.

In order to enable these future students to reach their full, unrestricted potential there needs to be a major change in both the curriculum and the environment in which these children are taught and brought up. In our committee's research, a number of expert witnesses, such as Dr Rachel Bowen, supported the findings of the Donaldson report, suggesting that if the Donaldson report was implemented properly, it could create learners who are fully equipped to deal with the challenges of the twenty-first century. It is our duty to ensure that future workers leave education with the skills to cope in a working environment that will be evolving and changing at a pace never before experienced.

It is our committee's view that the future of Wales's economy relies heavily on the Welsh Government's ability to embrace these new technologies and create an environment where there is an unparalleled opportunity for the existing workforce to upskill, and an education system that will equip future generations with the requisite skills and ability to adapt to an ever-changing work environment. Diolch.

I agree with the Cabinet Secretary that this debate and the foundational economy debate are flip sides of the same coin. It looks likely that the fourth industrial revolution is going to generate huge wealth, but it's wealth that's not going to be shared evenly. It will be distributed unequally, which is why the stress of the foundational economy looking after left-behind communities is so important—because people will be displaced. There are predictions consistently around a third of jobs being affected, but it's not going to be as black and white as that. Some 60 per cent of routine tasks will be automated—it will affect all of us.

This is one of those areas where the fourth industrial revolution is happening despite Government, not because of it, and we're struggling to keep up. It's been more than two years that we've been debating this in this Chamber, and it's difficult, I think, for Government to keep pace with the level of change taking place in the economy. To be fair to the Welsh Government, they've instituted the Phil Brown review to look at the implications on skills, which is due to report initially in the new year, and I think that is an excellent initiative. Also, the Cabinet Secretary has made sure in his new economic action plan that future Government support is centred—one of the key pillars is on how it supports automation and the fourth industrial revolution. That's to their credit.

But I don't feel that we are really seizing the agenda. As the Government's response to this committee report makes clear, there's a lot of stuff happening, but I don't feel that we're really grabbing it and applying it in a way that can give us early-mover advantage. One of the committee recommendations is that we look to see how we can demonstrate our domain expertise—those areas where we have a genuine advantage. And there aren't many, but there are some where Wales has a genuine advantage. So, compound semiconductors is a classic example—we are world-leading in that field. We should be looking at how we can apply automation in those areas where we are doing well, so that we can become leaders in those areas where we already have some headway. We're not doing that, and the response to the report is disappointing.

I'd like us to concentrate, mostly, on the precision agriculture element, because, again, it is a practical application of where we could have first-mover advantage in a particular subset. And in terms of Brexit, this is something that we can get ahead of—the implications of that—to give us some advantage. And Vikki Howells has already talked about food production, which, again, is a feature of the foundational economy debate. 

The Government's response I think is poor. Two years ago, we agreed in an individual Member's debate that the Government would publish a strategy on precision agriculture. That has yet to appear. The Government's response accepts recommendation 5 and recommendation 6, but, again, when you look at what they say, they don't seem to be willing to do anything different than they're already doing. Now, I accept that Government officials are up to their eyes in trying to deal with Brexit in the agriculture portfolio, but we really are missing a trick here. I would urge the Government to look again at this, as I have urged for two years, to no avail, because I genuinely feel we are really missing a key opportunity.

The evidence we took was persuasive. The benefits of precision agriculture are multiple. We heard from Professor Simon Blackmore from Harper Adams University about how, from an environmental point of view, the use of these technologies can significantly reduce the amount of pesticides and harm to the environment. So, for example, in his evidence, he told us of how they are now able to eliminate the use of herbicides and put chemicals directly onto the leaf of a weed, saving 99.9 per cent of the chemicals straight away—removing the need for chemicals and improving the quality of the plant, improving productivity on farms, and, post Brexit, that's exactly what we will need to do. But the Welsh Government—as we heard in the evidence—support offered to farms is not flexible enough, so Jason Llewellin, a farmer from Pembrokeshire, told us that he had to have 600 soil tests to be able to apply precision agriculture to his farm, but only 10 of them were available under the Government's Farming Connect scheme, and there's no real route to go on to the next level. Now, the Government just does not accept that in its response.

So, I just want to repeat what I've said before to the Ministers present that if you read the report, there's a compelling case about how we can apply this technology to Welsh circumstances—the types of farms we have, the smaller farms, the development of small machinery. We can lead the way here. There's great work being done in Swansea University, there's a cluster of expertise already around Aberystwyth University, and there's good work being done across the FE colleges in Wales in the farms that they own. We really can break through here, but we need to do more, and the Government simply isn't doing it, and I don't understand why.

I'd like to start by thanking the committee for their interest in industry 4.0 and their work in this inquiry. It's something that I would have certainly loved to have contributed towards.

We're in the midst of a significant transformation regarding the way we produce products and that's thanks to the digitalisation of manufacturing. We should always remain focused on viewing the next industrial revolution as an opportunity and not a challenge. That doesn't mean pretending that there won't be challenges, because there certainly will be, but we should always remain ambitious about the future and what we can do to turn those risks into rewards, so from being able to identify opportunities to optimising logistics and supply chains, autonomous equipment and vehicles, robots, the internet of things, and the cloud. Now, as an engineer, I'm particularly excited about the potential for all sectors of our economy, and we can make that a reality if we get the investment right, and that's from infrastructure to education, lifelong learning, apprenticeships and continued professional development. Putting industry at the heart of our curriculum and taking seriously investment such as digital connectivity is crucial.

My constituency in Alyn and Deeside could be the hardest hit by manufacturing job losses. So, in the spirit of turning risk into rewards, we must act. This isn't an issue confined to the corners of north-east Wales or just Cardiff, it affects all of us, but it also can benefit us too. We should be planning to create tech hubs in the west of Wales, working on digital skills for programming, coding and development purposes. In the north-east of Wales, building on our world-class record of being home to some of the world's best manufacturing companies, with the right investment in digital infrastructure, we could enhance our capabilities by combining robots and our skilled workforce and allowing them to co-evolve. In other parts of Wales, we should redouble our efforts to attract global companies to invest in the autonomous vehicle market. This is something we should not be afraid of, and in rural Wales, as Lee rightly mentions, we should look at how AI and automation can further benefit our rural workers and farms. 

Working terms and conditions, along with pay, are also concerns I know many workers have as we go through this period of change. But the question of how technological developments have impacted the core nature of our work is nothing new. It's an age-old question and it stretches back to the first industrial revolution. So, let's be bold, let's look at options like the universal basic income as a supplementary solution, let's look at how communities as a whole can benefit from the time that workers save through automation, making workers part of our communities again. I also believe that the Welsh Government should be looking closer at how it approaches and plans and responds to the fourth industrial revolution. Perhaps they should have a designated Minister complemented by a working group committee made up of experts from around the globe. This isn't a revolution that we can plan 10 years in advance for. This revolution is already here and we need to act urgently to adapt and to benefit.

Today, Llywydd, I'm wearing a recently purchased Apple watch. Its new features allow you to see more and do more just at a simple glance—I can see Lesley smiling at me now. Its assembly is 30 per cent smaller yet it contains 21 per cent more components, and at the heart of the watch there is an optical heart sensor that also allows you to quickly check your heart rate. It can detect if your heart rate falls below a threshold for a period of 10 minutes when you appear to be inactive, and that triggers a notification. That's healthcare automation before our very eyes. But we certainly need to do more and monitor the rate of change here in Wales of healthcare automation. The watch has been fundamentally redesigned and re-engineered to help you stay even more active, healthy and connected, and that must be the ultimate goal of this Welsh Government. Throughout this twenty-first century industrial revolution, we should fundamentally redesign and re-engineer policy to help people from across Wales. 

Just finally, Llywydd, I'd like to thank again the committee for this work. It's a great report and a great achievement. Really well done to all the Members who've contributed. Diolch.

Thank you. Can I now call the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport? Ken Skates.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Again, it's been a very thoughtful debate and I am very grateful to the committee for its work. Russell George at the outset said that if you fail to prepare, you should prepare to fail. This is something that was often said when I was in the officers' training corps. It's something that equally applies to economic development and many other areas of service provision. I firmly believe that our challenge in this regard is to futureproof the Welsh economy, and we have to get ahead of change in order to equip, not just our people and places but also our businesses to face the future with confidence. Our economic action plan is the main focus in futureproofing the economy of Wales.

It's worth saying that all previous industrial revolutions have led to the creation of more jobs than they have destroyed—the key difference being that the jobs created have often more advanced than those that have been lost, and so it's absolutely vital that our efforts should be placed most firmly on equipping people with the skills to take advantage of the jobs that will be created as a consequence of the fourth industrial revolution.

The economic action plan embodies three main strands of our approach to automation—firstly, the investment that's required in developing automation for its many benefits. Secondly, we need to educate and train the people for the jobs of the future, and, thirdly, we need to support workers in what will be, in many parts of the country, a difficult transition. We also need to empower workers to ensure broadly shared growth—again, reflecting back on the earlier debate that our focus must be on driving inclusive growth. The fourth industrial revolution should be utilised as a means of driving fairer growth and a fairer distribution of high-quality jobs across the country.

Automation and digitalisation is one of the five calls to action contained within the economic action plan. We engage very regularly with businesses and stakeholders to discuss the potential impact and opportunities of automation and digital technologies. I was particularly pleased, just this morning, to meet with CAF, who are building more than half of the trains that will be used in the coming 15 years and beyond. They'll be built at the Newport facility, and I was pleased to learn that the Newport facility will be the very first fully digitalised manufacturing facility in the CAF family—that as a consequence of working with Welsh Government to place very firmly the fourth industrial revolution at the forefront of their considerations in designing the facility, and in ensuring that the people who will be working there have the skills to take advantage of new and emerging digital technology. 

In addition, Wales's innovative tech community, I think, is already considering the opportunities of artificial intelligence. M7 Managed Services, in partnership with IBM, recently opened an AI centre of competence. Through our Be The Spark programme, we're also helping to create the environment for tech start-ups to compete effectively and efficiently by stimulating and engaging everybody in the Welsh ecosystem to support innovation-driven entrepreneurship right across the length and breadth of the country. The Centre of Excellence in Mobile and Emerging Technologies, based at the University of South Wales, is supporting Welsh businesses to develop services through the adoption of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

I think that harnessing the benefits from automation requires an infrastructure that supports the interconnectivity of devices in an automated environment. The economic action plan sets out our commitment to deliver fast, reliable broadband across Wales and to enable the market to roll out fifth-generation mobile networks.

Now, the need for highly competent and innovative Welsh businesses is higher than ever before. Our strengths already include compound semiconductors, nuclear and advanced manufacturing, and we're working to leverage funding from the UK industrial strategy challenge fund and EU funding to support these strengths. We have invested considerable sums in these areas of activity, and we will continue to do so, because— 

Will the Cabinet Secretary give way?

—these are the industries of the future. Yes, with delight.

Thanks for giving way. You've mentioned key components of this new economy—broadband, electric trains. I think this is a good time to plug the electric car infrastructure as well. I know it's not totally related to this, but, at the same time, that is all part of networks. We know that, at the moment, Wales is needing to play catch-up in terms of getting that electrical car charging infrastructure in place, so I hope you put that at the forefront as well.

Indeed. I think the Member is absolutely right—there is considerable market failure in Wales, and this also applies to other areas of technological service provision. The reason that we've had to intervene so deeply in terms of superfast broadband is because of the market failure that we've had to tackle.

I think the Member makes a very important point about the automotive sector. We recently announced how the £2 million fund will be used to install electric charging points. We're hoping that we can use that as an incentive to develop more charging points that will enable cars to be charged at superfast speeds. I think it's absolutely essential that we use a limited resource in the best possible way, and that means futureproofing the provision of the charging points; it means investing in those charging points that are going to be able to supply power to cars more quickly. I'm particularly pleased that new technologies within the automotive sector are being developed right here and now in Wales. I'm delighted that Aston Martin Lagonda's new Lagonda electric powertrain will be amongst the most advanced on the planet, and that we will see it developed here. 

Now, in March, we announced a review into the implications of digital innovation on the future of work and the Welsh economy, as Members have identified, and that work is now under way and being led by Professor Phil Brown of Cardiff University school of social sciences. We're looking forward to the outcome of the review in March, which, I can assure Russell George, will be addressing recommendation 1, and, if not fully, then I can assure him that further complementary work will be undertaken. We need to be very much alive at all times during the fourth industrial revolution to disruptive technologies that could be utilised by the Welsh economy, and within the Welsh economy, to give us a competitive edge. It will require, therefore, a constant degree of monitoring, evaluation, study and research. And I can also assure Russell and other Members of the Siambr that we will continue to develop strategic, mutually supportive and beneficial relationships with business, with academia and with communities to prepare our economy for the future. 

Changes to the way that we work and the implications of automation mean that we need to rethink our approach to lifelong learning and to adapt our training and skills provision accordingly. Our employability plan sets out a range of measures to support individuals to develop and to adapt their skills to the changing needs of the labour market. Furthermore, technology and innovation, including the use of data, will help, as Members have identified, the farming industry to modernise and become more resilient and competitive and address its climate change and environmental responsibilities. Precision farming I don't think should be considered in isolation; instead, it should be considered as part of a broader agricultural and land use strategy post Brexit, and precision agriculture will doubtless help the sector address climate change and environmental responsibilities in line with the economic action plan.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I am conscious of time. Just reflecting back on the previous debate, it's often anchor companies, as large investors with the ability to be able to harness innovation and expertise from around the globe, that drive technological change, and I think it's a very dangerous assertion to make that we should cease support for innovation in companies such as Airbus UK, Ford, Calsonic Kansei, Tata and others in order solely to support the development of the foundational economy. Instead, we should see the foundational economy as the bedrock of the Welsh economy, driving inclusive growth, and the industries of tomorrow, which include those anchors that we have supported, as the drivers of the fourth industrial revolution that we need to work in partnership with.   

Thank you. Can I now call on Russell George to reply to the debate? 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to thank the Cabinet Secretary for his response. The committee did intend this report, really, not just to make recommendations to Government but it intended it to be a report and inquiry that raised awareness of some of the key ideas and concepts. We also wanted to challenge not just Government but business as well, and the third sector, because all of us, I think, need to think about the profound changes that are arriving at a great frequency. 

Now, as I said at the beginning of this debate today, the stakes could not be higher. The evidence we gathered could not be clearer. We had clear evidence in our committee sessions; experts warned that thousands of jobs are likely to be in the balance in the very near future. Automation is a wind that could rip through the entire economy and leave devastation in its wake if we don't properly prepare. But, if we are prepared, there are, of course, enormous opportunities too, and that's what fellow committee members and Jack Sargeant picked up on in the course of our debate today.

Adam Price expanded on test beds and the need to build a showcase for Wales's ability, and the potential of AI—of an AI college, rather, which he outlined the case for. Hefin, of course, commented on driverless vehicles, and I know as a committee that we intend to do some more work in that area. And David Rowlands focused his contribution on Government needing to identify the needs, and business needing to identify the needs, in terms of creating the right workforce for the future. The fourth industrial revolution is happening despite Government, not because of it, was what Lee Waters said. Lee Waters, of course, talked at length in regard to precision agriculture. This is something I didn't have particularly strong views on previously. [Interruption.] Is it your quote, Lee, or is it somebody else's? [Interruption.] I'll give it to you. I think precision agriculture is something I didn't have great views on before doing this piece of work, but I can certainly say now that I share the views that I know Lee has held for some time. I'm grateful to Jack Sargeant for his contribution, giving his perspective as an engineer, and an example he gave in terms of how AI can improve our healthcare as well. 

I would like to thank a few people. We had a great range of experts during the course of our inquiry and most of them, if not the majority, were Wales based. We had evidence in regard to automated vehicles, precision agriculture—all good evidence. We also visited Amazon during the course of our inquiry and, across the road, Swansea University—visited their engineering department. As Vikki Howells pointed out, that engineering department is expanding. I think Vikki was probably as fascinated as I was at the robot we witnessed that was going to be looking after us, apparently, in our old age. Thanks also to the committee team that support us and the integrated team.

I think that this debate, although I'm closing it now, is very much the start of a much longer debate that I think needs to take place.  

Thank you very much. The proposal is to note the committee's report. Does any Member object? Therefore the motion to note the committee's report is agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36. 

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.