5. Will the First Minister set out the Welsh Government's economic priorities for Aberavon for the remainder of this Assembly? OAQ54612

I thank the Member for that question. Our priorities include safeguarding the Aberavon economy from the adverse impacts of Brexit by investing in people, places and businesses through skills, infrastructure and business support.

I thank the First Minister for that answer. Now, First Minister, as you're aware, last week, Hi-Lex Cable System Company announced that it was going to close its factory, with the loss of 125 well-paid, highly skilled jobs as a consequence of a forecast of sales lost due to Brexit, as the Swindon Honda plant is going to shut consequently. Now, what we have here are high-skilled, well-paid individuals who are working in the locality, and what we want now is to actually ensure that we attract more inward investment and support local businesses so that we can use those skills. We want to ensure that those skills remain local, because if we want a diverse economy in Port Talbot, then we need to have that attraction and those skills retained. Can you give me assurances that you will work with local authorities and other partners to attract businesses to ensure that the skilled workforce remains, and if we need more skills, we develop those skills within Port Talbot to ensure that those businesses can work effectively there?

I thank the Member for that question. It is indeed because of the efforts that the Welsh Government, local authorities and businesses in his constituency have made that full-time workers in Aberavon have the highest gross weekly earnings in the whole of Wales. We want to make sure that we do everything we can to continue to provide a range of opportunities where those very highly skilled people can develop their skills for new opportunities and deploy their skills in existing ways.

I look forward to working with Neath Port Talbot council on the programmes for which they are responsible within the Swansea city deal. We're in the very final stages of seeing them submit the business case for the Homes as Power Stations project. That will be £0.5 billion-worth of investment in the Swansea Bay city deal area, led by Neath Port Talbot council. Soon after that business case is submitted, we look forward to receiving detailed proposals for the Swansea Bay technology centre, to be based at the Baglan Energy Park, again led by Neath Port Talbot council and absolutely aimed at creating technological possibilities for the future, where the high-skill people who made up that local economy will be able to look forward to a future in which their skills can be further developed and put to good productive use.

Thank you for mentioning the Swansea Bay city deal there, but one area within our economy generally in Wales where we need highly skilled workers is an area where high levels of skill aren't seen as necessary, and that is our tourism industry. I know that David Rees will agree with me on this, that we've got in Aberavon some rather fantastic, but also unexpected scenery and attractions. We know about Margam Country Park, and so forth, but we've also got the Baked Bean Museum of Excellence. All of these are things that are something of a private delight to residents in that area, but I'm sure they'd be very happy to share those with the rest of the world. So, can you tell me what your Government has done to take advantage of the UK Government tourism sector deal to raise the status and strategic importance of tourism in Wales, particularly with areas like Aberavon, where there's a lot to offer, but that potential is under-exploited?

Llywydd, let me agree with Suzy Davies about the potential that Aberavon has for tourism. And, the Member is absolutely right to say that there is a real challenge for that industry in reshaping its reputation amongst people who go to work for it, and emphasising to people the opportunities that exist within the tourism industry and that it isn't regarded as something you do only when nothing else is available to you. So, that's a reputational challenge for that sector. I met recently with representatives from the tourism industry in Wales, and they know themselves, particularly if a supply of labour that they have relied upon coming from other parts of the European Union won't be available to them in the future, that they are going to have to do more to make that industry attractive to people who are already here in Wales.

We will work with them to do that, to find new opportunities, because the tourism industry is important in all parts of Wales, but there is a challenge for the industry itself. They are going to have to do things that demonstrate that the skills are important, that the career paths exist, that the rewards are available, and that if you commit yourself to leisure and tourism in Wales, then the opportunities that my colleague Dafydd Elis-Thomas is helping to develop in that industry, levelling it upwards so that it has a different profile in Wales, that that profile communicates itself to potential workers as well.