Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 1 March 2022.
Llywydd, I thank James Evans for that question. It was very good to have this question, with St David's Day falling on a Tuesday this year. And it does provide a genuine platform for us to be able to raise the profile and awareness of Wales. I was very pleased myself to begin the day, quite early on this morning, in signing a memorandum of understanding with the Governor of Ōita province in Japan, building on the relations that were set down when the Welsh rugby team was based in that part of Japan during the Rugby World Cup, and what a fantastic welcome the team had in that part of Japan. And it's led since to both economic links, cultural links, links between young people from Wales and that part of Japan, and we were able to formalise that in a new memorandum between Wales and Ōita this morning.
The economy Minister, as I said earlier, is in Dubai today, where the UK pavilion at the World Expo event is being given over to Wales, a whole Welsh day there, and that is focused primarily on food and drink and on businesses promoting what Wales can do in that part of the world. I myself, at the end of today, Llywydd, will be in the Canadian embassy in London, again with a group of other people, because 2022 is the year of Wales in Canada. We've had fantastic support from the Canadian Government, and from the Government of Quebec where we have particular links, and this afternoon will be an opportunity to give that a different level of profile and to put the sort of energy into that year that will mean that it will match the success of last year's Wales in Germany events, which were outstandingly successful in raising the profile of Wales as an economic destination, as a tourist destination, as a place of exchanges between cultural and sporting organisations, and therefore to promote people's understanding of Wales and the opportunities that those links provide for them and provide for us as well.