Economic Growth in North Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 13 July 2022.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:36, 13 July 2022

I actually think that we're in a very good position in our relationship with a range of stakeholders. I'm meeting trade union groups next week. I met with Community, a largely steel-based trade union, to talk about the future of the sector yesterday. And I met with the Federation of Small Businesses, the Confederation of British Industry and Chambers Wales this week as well. Actually, it's one of the points, on coming in to this post, that was made by business organisations themselves, that they felt that the nature of the relationship with the Welsh Government and wider stakeholders was stronger than it had ever been before, because of the way we had had to work together during the pandemic, because of the regular nature and exchange of information, and the ability to build on 20 years of trust in devolution, and the very concentrated pressures of the last two years. Where we've been honest and where we've disagreed as well as where we've agreed, we've always managed to improve the strength of our relationship. But I don't think our relationship is the point that I would say that we need to see improving, and we actually need some more certainty in an environment in which we're going to make choices. That's both on trade with our European partners and on investment choices. We talked earlier in Jack Sargeant's question about nuclear; we need not just ambition but actual choices to be made, and we definitely need certainty for our steel sector, which will be a crucial part of how we're able to take advantage of renewable energy, around our coastline in particular, and a range of other opportunities in advanced engineering and manufacturing.