5. What actions is the Welsh Government taking to support the manufacturing sector in Wales? OQ55476

Llywydd, the Welsh Government's manufacturing manifesto was due to be published on 2 April. While formal consultation has not been possible because of the coronavirus crisis, the themes of the manifesto—skills, infrastructure, research and leadership, for example—continue to shape our support for the sector.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister. I look forward to the publication of the manifesto because it is critical. Welsh manufacturing has been the bedrock of much of our economy over the years, and actually over the centuries, and it's important. We need to keep that going. We have seen losses in Airbus, GE. Manufacturing has been hit by COVID very severely.

Now, the UK Government seems to have failed to actually consider manufacturing, and is not giving the support it should be giving. But this Welsh Government needs to give that support to ensure that it continues to thrive throughout the years ahead of us. Can you give me guarantees that the Welsh Government will continue to support manufacturing, particularly in areas that have faced difficulties, and I'll include steel in that area, as well as the aviation sector, so that we can continue to have the highly skilled, well-paid jobs in Wales that they've always supported? 

Well, Llywydd, I'm very happy indeed to provide that assurance to David Rees. He's right, 10.7 per cent of Welsh employment takes place in the manufacturing sector, compared to 7.9 per cent of the UK employment in that sector. So, it's obviously of much greater importance to us here in Wales, and particularly to communities of the sort that David Rees so regularly speaks up for here on the floor of the Senedd.

I want to recognise where the UK Government has stepped in to help. On 2 July the emergency loan to Celsa, in the steel industry, was a very important decision and has helped to safeguard 800 jobs here in south Wales. But that is the example of what more is needed. We absolutely have to have sectoral employment protection schemes for steel, for automotive and for aerospace. Those are fundamental industries here in Wales. They face existential crises as a result of coronavirus, and each one of them needs a bespoke package of help from the UK Government in order to make sure that they are here the other side of this crisis, because the UK economy needs a steel industry, the UK economy needs a successful aerospace industry, and only the UK Government has that firepower, as my colleague Ken Skates has put it, to step in and provide help of the sort that is needed.

The Welsh Government will continue to do the things that we do—investing in skills, investing in research, helping with local investments that we can put in place, as we have with Tata in Port Talbot—but the nature of the crisis is such that it is a UK response that is needed and, sadly, we didn't hear anything of it in the summer statement of Wednesday last week. 

First Minister, yesterday's NatWest business activity index reported a contraction in business activity in the manufacturing sector as a result of ongoing lockdown measures. In their report, they state that many businesses have reported that the ongoing lockdown measures have stymied growth opportunities. They also report a drop in new orders, which was higher than the UK average, and a downturn in new business. They also go on to say that this weak client demand has affected the manufacturing sector from hiring employees, and this rate of contraction in employment has also outpaced, sadly, the UK average. What assessment has the Welsh Government done on how the slower rate of reopening the economy has impacted livelihoods and in particular the Welsh manufacturing sector?

Well, Llywydd, I don't think you need to do a great deal of analysis to understand that it is not the pace of Welsh economy lockdown lifting that has had the effect on Airbus or on Tata. It's nonsensical to suggest it. Those are global industries and it is global trading conditions that have led to the decisions that those industries are making.

The pace of the lockdown in Wales has had no impact upon that whatsoever, and really it just doesn't stand up to any form of serious—[Interruption.] No, the report doesn't suggest that—it's just a Tory gloss here, trying to rescue some point that they think they can make, rather than anything serious at all. The crisis facing those industries—. Don't wave it at me. Just because you've got it doesn't mean to say that you've understood it, does it? And, clearly, you haven't understood it, because if you read what Airbus had to say, if you read what Tata have to say—they are not saying that the global crisis that they face has been derived from the pace at which the lockdown in Wales has been lifted. It would be absurd. It's an absurd proposition. The Member should know better than to make it here.