Inward Investment in the North Wales Region

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 1:38 pm on 7 October 2020.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 1:38, 7 October 2020

Well, the Member will also be aware of the astonishing work that's been taking place at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre Cymru, which we opened just last autumn. That centre was designed to deliver opportunities for businesses to collaborate. It was designed to capture the 'wing of tomorrow' for Airbus, it was designed to capture more research and innovation funding from the UK Government, but, during the course of the pandemic, it's also stepped up to the national effort, producing invaluable equipment for the national health service. 

Right across north Wales, we've seen investment levels at a very, very high rate in terms of foreign direct investment. We've seen around about a quarter of the recent inward investment projects secured in north Wales. In 2019-20, there were 15 investments from overseas, creating 348 jobs. I do apologise if the Member has missed any press releases regarding those 15 significant investments, but I can assure the Member that we are doing all we can to land as many opportunities for the region as possible. And that's shown by the employment figures. We have a higher rate of employment in north Wales than we have across Wales on average. And, right now, unemployment across Wales stands at 3.1 per cent, compared to 4.1 per cent across the UK. And that demonstrates the value of devolution and, in particular, the enormous efforts that the Welsh Government have displayed during the course of the pandemic, with the Wales-only economic resilience fund securing more than 100,000 jobs.