HC Deb 19 October 1992 vol 212 cc147-8W
Mr. Morgan

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will give details of the costs to(a) his direct departmental budget, (b) the Welsh Development Agency, (c) the Wales Tourist Board and (d) other public bodies of the current Wales promotional world tour; if he will specify how many persons from each body are attending each leg of the tour; if he will publish a list of (a) business meetings, (b) cultural events, (c) exhibitions and (d) social events being undertaken by each group on each leg of the tour; what special literature has been printed for the tour and what arrangements have been made for shipping it; if he will place a copy in the Library of the prior cost-benefit analysis of the resourcing and purposes of the exercise; if he will institute an evaluation of the exercise after its completion and place a copy in the Library; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. David Hunt

I have just returned from an inward investment mission to North America, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong leading a team of up to four officials from the Welsh Office. I shall write to the hon. Gentleman with the costs when I have full details, but I expect them to be in the region of £75,000.

The Welsh Development Agency was represented by three people in the United States, two in Korea, three in Japan and two in Hong Kong. Several of the WDA representatives are based overseas and would have been overseas anyway irrespective of the mission itself.

The Wales Tourist Board was not involved in the mission and no other public bodies were involved.

For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it would not be appropriate to list each engagement, but in the 12 days I undertook 56 official engagements, 32 of which were directly business-related and four were cultural. The remainder consisted of engagements such as ministerial meetings, seminars and media interviews.

No special literature was prepared for the mission. All such missions are carefully planned to ensure good value for money, and locations and engagements are chosen in order to maximise the potential benefits to Wales. Full results will take time to become apparent, but I am confident that the mission will help significantly to maintain Wales's excellent inward investment record.

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