3. Statement by the Minister for Economy: The Innovation Strategy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:09 pm on 28 February 2023.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:09, 28 February 2023

Thank you for the questions. Your point about innovation assets and the example of GCRE, the Global Centre for Rail Excellence, is exactly what I had in my mind, about something where the Welsh Government took a lead, made a choice and saw a gap where something did not exist and we had the potential to create something in Wales, and that's actually levered in money directly from the UK Government, and there'll be private sector money coming in as well. And it will not just be an interesting innovation experiment, but Birmingham, which has Birmingham University, which is one of the leading universities, if not the leading university, on rail innovation in the UK, they're interested; they want to be part of that. We can expect there to be really good jobs in a rural part of Wales directly being created because of the way that we have, as a Government, selected that site with a real gap. And that will produce not just opportunities within the UK, but right across Europe there'll be people, I think, who will want to come to that innovation centre. It means there's more development that will take place not just directly in the rail sector, and not just an opportunity potentially for a museum there, but, actually, because you're going to look at other accommodation needs alongside that, you should have different opportunities, if we think about the environment that it exists in as well. 

So, I'm very keen that we see each of these areas as opportunities to improve the economy in that area, and also to add to the economy of Wales as a whole. And it's all about the story we want to tell about Wales, to not just shout about our own successes but with other parts of the world to see that these things really do happen in Wales and they make a practical difference, as you say, not just for Wales but in other parts of the UK and beyond. And in my conversations with UK Ministers, they're very practical and constructive with a number of them when it comes to what we think we can do, and, thus far, the science Ministers—plural—that I have dealt with have been open minded about recognising they don't have a full picture of where there's innovation excellence in Wales.

The challenge is the consistency in action, and, whilst I'd like to see a different UK Government entirely, I'd welcome a period of stability for at least a few months, which we haven't had for a number of years, because the chopping and the changing of Ministers makes it really difficult to get a consistent answer, and we'll then need to see if the budget in just a few weeks' time actually follows through on the stated good intentions of Ministers involved in the innovation area. It's actually somewhere where we could add to what we're doing with a more grown-up and pragmatic relationship, in direct contrast to what's happened on shared prosperity. This should be an area where there are real strengths not just for Wales, but for the wider UK as well.