4. Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government’s economic priorities for North Wales? OQ56666

Our economic priorities for all parts of Wales, including those, of course, for north Wales, are as set out in our newly published programme for government.

Thank you for your response, First Minister. You will know that one of the biggest employers in north Wales is the tourism sector, which supports around 46,000 jobs and in usual times generates over £3.5 billion annually to the local economy. However, as you touched on earlier, we're aware of your plans to explore a tourism tax on visitors holidaying in Wales. The Wales Tourism Alliance has said that this would make the industry less competitive and make Wales seem more expensive. Would you agree with me that, rather than time, energy and resources being spent on seeking to introduce a tax that has been rejected by the experts in the field, now should be the time to support the sector to bounce back from the pandemic?

Now is the time for the Government that was elected by the people of Wales to fulfil the manifesto on which we were elected. The proposal to explore a tourism tax was absolutely and explicitly there in our manifesto and discussed during the election campaign. The people of Wales made their decision; they will get the party that they voted for and the proposals that we put in front of them. 

First Minister, the hard work of successive Labour Governments has led to the employment rate in north Wales reaching a record high, and we now have a record number of businesses in existence in north Wales. But of course, cross-border collaboration has been instrumental in driving the success story of the north Wales economy, and there are particularly strong ties in key sectors such as green energy and advanced manufacturing, and, indeed, life sciences. First Minister, would you agree with me that working together with our cross-border comrades makes us stronger, and it is absolutely necessary in order to avoid competition and to enhance cross-border transportation, too?

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.