Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:30 pm on 14 January 2020.
The co-ordination of this strategy has been cross-Government, and Ministers have been feeding into it. And you're absolutely right: sustainability has been central to what we've been trying to deliver here. The well-being of future generations will be core, and it's of real interest. Whenever we speak to people from different countries around the world, that's the thing that many of them pick up on, that we are genuinely unique, we are pioneering, in this sense, and they all want to learn more about that particular aspect.
On other aspects of practically what we're hoping to do, you will see in the strategy that we will be promoting magnet projects, and one of the magnet projects we'll be promoting is wave and tidal technology, which will shift the focus, we hope, in terms of inward investment, into north Wales and to west Wales. So, that's a very deliberate action. And the other thing that you need to understand is that compound semiconductors are very high-tech, but what they are, actually, is power savers. They save energy, and the impact they can have on, for example, data centres, in terms of reducing energy, is significant. And so that is absolutely central to that tone that we're trying to impress on people in terms of our commitment to sustainability.
On trade, we are very keen to make sure that we have that relationship with the UK Government before trade negotiations start, and we're still waiting for a date; we're hoping that a date will be forthcoming next week for us to start really engaging in practical detail on where we should be heading next. But you can be assured that we will be defending Welsh interests. It's very difficult to work out when can we come to the Assembly and say, 'This is what our strategy is', because it's going to be very, very fast moving, and we still don't know what the rules of engagement look like. And so it's very difficult for us to make a commitment to the Assembly when we're in a position where we don't know where we stand. So, I will try and keep you informed in terms of when we get more clarity on how we intend to engage with the Assembly on that.
On the diaspora, I think this is an area where we do need to do some more significant work. We've already commissioned some work on how we can digitally engage across the world, and how best we can impact and make a connection with people. So, that work has already been commissioned. We've had meetings with the people who are engaged in different diaspora communities, so that we can pull our work together, and I think there's a huge opportunity for us there. All of the offices now have been targeted with making sure that they build up that diaspora network as well.
In terms of selling Wales abroad, and Welsh abroad, we've already commissioned a document, and I made a presentation on the forthcoming international strategy to a group of ambassadors and consuls in London before Christmas. And one of the things we showed them was a specially commissioned video demonstrating what we've done in relation to the Welsh language. So, that is already in progress and something we're already using.
On targets—listen, generally, I'm somebody who likes to see targets. The problem is that we have a situation here where we have very fast shifting sands. And so for us to set out targets, it's very difficult. And I'll just give you an example. On education, if we said, 'Right, we want to see thousands more students from around the world coming to study in Wales', we would have set that target too low before—. The UK Government now has said that those students will be allowed to stay for two years extra. That's probably going to encourage a lot more students to come. So, we'd have hit those targets far sooner than we should have. That's an example of where it's going to be difficult.
On inward investment, likewise, until we know what the relationship with the European Union is, it's going to be difficult for us to assess to what extent people are likely or not to want to invest in our country. And I would refute the fact that it's not an ethical document. The values are absolutely core to what we are putting out here. And I do think that we have to be very careful about defence. Defence is an important industry in Wales, and aerospace is an important industry. We have 160 companies employing 20,000 people, in the aerospace and defence companies. You've just heard Dawn Bowden talking about how she's keen to see the vehicles that they're producing in her area being used in the military. So, I don't think we should shy away from the fact that actually a core reason for Government is to defend its people, and certainly that's something that we would be very proud to see. And the fact that we have put cyber as central to this—. Cyber security is core to what we need to do now as a nation to defend our NHS, to defend the work we do as parliamentarians, because already the UK Government Parliament has been attacked. So, these are significant issues. The line between defence and commercial work is something that we've got be aware of, but there are a lot of people employed in this sector and I don't think we should shy away from it.