3. Statement by the Minister for Economy: The Free-port Programme in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:21 pm on 28 March 2023.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:21, 28 March 2023

We're not going to be able to make a formal announcement on the basis of the free-port bid moving forward to the next stage. Understanding the level of economic activity that the free port can deliver—we'll have greater clarity on that once the outline business case is returned. So, we're going to do exactly what we said we'd do, in understanding whether it moves through the next stage successfully, as I hope it will do, and the sort of economic activity that will get generated, the time frame for that, and we'll, of course, need to take infrastructure choices around that. We would be in a better position to make infrastructure choices, of course, if we had the consequentials from HS2 and Northern Powerhouse that were referred to earlier on. I look forward to Sam Rowlands joining and giving his voice to that call as well on the new free ports that are being jointly established by the Welsh Government and the UK Government, and I look forward to making decisions in the next stage of that process.