Inward Investment (Hansard, 14 March 1994)

§ 13. Dr. Spink
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the current level of inward investment to Wales.

§ Mr. Redwood
In the first 10 months of the current financial year, Welsh Development International recorded 120 projects, which promise about 11,000 new and safeguarded jobs and a capital investment of £630 million.

§ Dr. Spink
Does not that demonstrate our economic success in a difficult world recession in a way that is not just good for Wales but good for the whole of our nation?

§ Mr. Redwood
That was a short and accurate question and I would give a short and accurate answer—yes.

§ Mr. Ainger
Does not the Minister accept that instead of sending the Minister of State to Barcelona he should send him to Brussels especially to intervene in the mess that the Commission has got itself in over Interreg II, as a result of which Dyfed in particular stands to lose a significant sum—possibly tens of millions of pounds—in European investment in the next six years because we are now being excluded by the Commission from the consultation process? Can he assure us that either he or the Minister of State is taking the matter up at the highest level in Brussels?

§ Mr. Redwood
Of course I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the Welsh Office is taking the matter up in Brussels, as he would expect. My right hon. Friend the Minister of State does great work for Wales in representing us in many countries in Europe, and I hope that the hon. Member for Pembroke (Mr. Ainger) recognises that there is benefit in trade links of the type that my right hon. Friend is extending. The Under-Secretary also recently visited Brussels.