Diversifying the Economy of South Wales West

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 26 February 2020.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 2:04, 26 February 2020

Can I thank Caroline Jones for her question? I can assure her that we already are investing heavily in R&D, that we're working with higher education institutions in the region. Swansea University have taken a lead in many respects in regard to industrial energy solutions, and we are absolutely determined to chase after every penny that is on offer through the UK Government's industrial energy transformation fund and the clean steel fund. They amount to something in the region of £500 million of investment over several years, but I'm afraid to say that that investment pales into almost insignificance next to the Netherlands' £5 billion annual investment that is being made in decarbonisation.

Decarbonisation offers an enormous opportunity for businesses in Wales, for research and development organisations, for higher education institutions, and I'm keen to make sure that, within south Wales, the industrial cluster that has been established is used as a pathway to draw down as much UK industrial strategy funding as possible, but also to access Welsh Government funding. Okay, our bags of money may be smaller than the UK Government's, but, nonetheless, we are able to make strategic investments that assist businesses in decarbonising, and I could identify a number in the Member's region, such as Keytree, where they were able to access £0.5 million and create 38 highly skilled jobs in a software hub within the region. Approximately 33 per cent of our calls to action money has gone to projects relating directly to decarbonisation programmes and, as a result of that, we have seen an employment rate in mid and south-west Wales that has increased by 7.1 per cent between 2011 and 2019. But our determination is to build on that by investing in those industries of tomorrow, and, clearly, decarbonisation is at the very heart of the industries of the future.