, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
I'm not entirely sure of the point that they were making, in the sense that we will deal with the applications that come forward as quickly as possible. We've got our strategic search areas, and obviously we would encourage developers to look at those search…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
The work we're doing on planning will accelerate the time it takes to make a decision. The First Minister has been really clear that she wants Wales to be the fastest place in the UK to get a planning decision. We've invested millions of pounds additional in…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
In relation to the point about the number of developments that are determined in terms of planning, we've made huge changes to our planning systems recently and invested significantly in resources to support planning. In the last year, 13 applications for…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
Certainly, you could call it a road map or a 10-year plan, but it's definitely—
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
We're undertaking work of that nature at the moment, because we've got the £160 million proposal for a 10-year investment zone, which will have its focus on semiconductors. That will be in the Newport area and in the Cardiff capital region. In that sense…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
The compound semiconductor sector is absolutely one of our priority areas for our promotion efforts globally, but particularly in countries such as the USA, Japan, Taiwan. Those are areas where we already have good leads and where we've attended some of those…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
Officials are currently in discussion with the development bank about expanding the Wales commercial property fund. Colleagues will be aware of our property development plan. That really is about unlocking those strategically important sites. Alun Davies and…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
No. The vast majority of invitations were through our overseas teams, but then, also, our specialist teams in the core areas that we wanted to promote. So, our team that deals with compound semiconductors, for example, they knew exactly who our targets would…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
I think one of the benefits, certainly from an inward investment perspective, of the current system, and having our trade and invest team here within Welsh Government, is just that easy access to Ministers. I don't think that you can overestimate how…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
So, I'd be keen to explore that evidence further. Obviously, we want to hear where we can make changes. As I say, things are changing quite rapidly on the ground in terms of investment and the scope for even further large inward investment projects. We've…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
So, the trade and invest team essentially are that one-stop shop. So, the overseas network will be having those initial discussions with businesses, building up those relationships. And then, if there is an intention or a keenness to find out more about…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
I'm not sure it does. But I'll say that, as we've heard—. We've published the annual reports in terms of the work of our overseas offices. I'm more than happy, as I've said today, to share more detail about the annual plans and key performance indicators and…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
So, where would you see the lack of transparency?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
So, they're not paid roles, they're proud Welsh people who are really influential and just want to help. And so, they use their personal networks and so on. What I'm not sure about is the extent of any expenses that we might pay for any event that they might…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
I will double-check on that detail. I don't know if Russell's able to help us.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
[Inaudible.]—Global Welsh, and I know my officials have as well, and we have regular engagement with them and we're always keen to explore with Global Welsh any leads that they're able to deliver to us that we're not already engaged with. So, we absolutely…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
[Inaudible.]—that's undertaken there is taken forward through our overseas network that I've described. But since our action plan, which looked at how we engage with Welsh people overseas, there's been some really regular engagement. We've had specific events…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
So, we do work well with the UK Government in a variety of ways to jointly promote our inward investment opportunities here in Wales, and part of that involves work that we do, through the UK Government, with our embassy teams. They're very active across the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
I don't think there were any specific leads around district heat networks from the investment summit, partly because we were looking at those specific sectors around advanced manufacturing, life sciences and so on.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
—today, we have been doing the work. So, there are, I think, 13 different—. Policy 16 of 'Future Wales' sets out guidance on the development of the district heat network. So, there are 16 of those identified across Wales, but also we should be considering…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
Yes. In anticipation of raising heat networks—
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
—methodology working through at the moment, in terms of methodically contacting the companies who were at that event. So, 150 of those attendees were new to Wales. So, this was very much about them making that first contact with Wales, and us being able to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
Immediately after the summit, officials were following up leads, making contact with those who'd attended the summit, which, I think, everyone agreed was a really outstanding event. So, there's that kind of methodol—[Laughter.]
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
So, collectively, the overseas team played a role in over 42 per cent of the project wins between 2022-23 and 2024-25. That's where we have the latest figures, and that's where there was an active Welsh Government involvement, creating or safeguarding nearly…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Inward investment: Panel 5
I think there are two things. The first was, actually, a downward trend in the number of leads coming through the UK Government offices, although we are seeing now a reversal of that, but then also the additional work that we do in market and the increasing…
