Economic Priorities for North Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:07 pm on 22 June 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:07, 22 June 2021

I thank Ken Skates for that, and for drawing attention to the strengths of the economy in north Wales, with its record high levels of employment, and with, as Members will have seen, the direct inward investment figures published today showing the ongoing strength of the economy in that part of Wales. I was very pleased recently to meet with very senior members of the board of Airbus, who came to tell me of their plans to go on investing in north Wales as that aviation sector recovers, and how determined they are that the very skilled and committed workforce they have in that part of Wales will go on being part of that global company's future. 

The Member himself, Llywydd, when he was the Minister for the economy, was a great champion of working with others to make sure that the economy in the north-east of Wales particularly is part of that wider ecology and economy. There's the Mersey Dee Alliance, which I know he championed—our colleague Vaughan Gething has attended a meeting today for the launch of a series of ideas for an economic and fiscal stimulus across the Mersey Dee area—the Offshore Energy Alliance, the possibilities for a cross-border carbon capture and storage economy in the hydrogen field, where we have investments in Ynys Môn and in Flintshire, and—and I know that this was an area where the Member particularly championed things—a metro programme in which we persuade the UK Government to make the necessary investments that they have to make in the road and the rail infrastructure to make sure that the economy of north Wales can go on thriving.