I hope that each and every one of us can support amendment 5, tabled in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth. In 2017, Adam Price and I published this discussion paper, 'The Future of the West: Collaboration for the Benefit of the Economy and the Welsh Language'. It outlined the desire to see the councils of the west—Anglesey, Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire—working together on strategic issues of economic development.

The economic and linguistic situation in the west of Wales has reached crisis point: the outward migration of young people, per capita income levels being among the lowest in Europe, a lack of investment, the Welsh language as a community language withering away, and Brexit threatening the future of agriculture and rural communities and universities of the area too. The challenges are great, and we need urgent solutions to them.

Plaid Cymru managed to persuade the Welsh Government to allocate £2 million for the initial work on this, and the Arfor region in west Wales has now been established. The concept is taking root. It can go from strength to strength from this point onwards, and Plaid Cymru's vision is to create a strong economic region in the west of Wales that will carry out effective economic interventions in order to tackle some of the major challenges facing this rural Welsh area. The area will include growth areas such as the Menai area, which includes part of my own constituency of Arfon.

The Conservatives, and it would appear this Labour Government too, do give a great deal of attention to the city regions. That is not going to strengthen most of the vulnerable economic regions of Wales. It is a flawed economic development strategy in my view, because it follows the ideology of the free market, and the end point of the creation of the city deals is drawing growth into already developing areas, depriving the rural and deprived areas of the economic support that they so need. For me, an economic development strategy should support the areas and populations that so need that support. But, at the moment, it’s a policy of 'those who are already well off get better off', where resources are concentrated on the areas that are already prosperous.

So, thank goodness for Arfor. The Arfor board has been established between the four counties, and a statement of intent was agreed, namely to work in partnership to establish a framework where economic development and language planning will be co-ordinated. A strategic plan will be prepared that will set out a long-term vision and a modus operandi in order to achieve economic and linguistic prosperity in the west of Wales. Additionally, a range of projects will be implemented and evaluated in order to discover the most effective ways of creating economic prosperity on the ground, and I look forward very much to seeing that work develop.

This is at its very early stages. Arfor is an important counterpoint to the city regions and the growth areas, and it deserves to be recognised fully so that it can develop into a powerful western powerhouse for the future.