Plaid Cymru make pledge to boost exports and investment
Plaid Cymru will re-establish Wales’ reputation as a trading nation the party’s Shadow Economy Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth has today announced.
Speaking to the business community in a keynote address, Rhun ap Iorwerth announced that a Plaid Cymru government will create a new trade and investment promotion agency, restoring the WDA brand which remains a globally-recognised brand.
Rhun ap Iorwerth also announced that a Plaid Cymru government will embark upon the biggest programme for reconstruction Wales has seen since devolution, led by a newly-established National Infrastructure Commission Wales (NICW). NICW will be a new independent public corporation that will plan, fund and deliver the aspirations set out in the National Infrastructure Investment Plan.
Plaid Cymru will also establish a National Bank of Wales to provide finance to Welsh businesses to help plug the estimated funding gap of £500m per year faced by Welsh businesses, and to help Welsh businesses by offering business rate relief to 83,000 of them, taking 70,000 out of rates altogether.
Plaid Cymru Shadow Economy Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said:
“I am announcing that a Plaid Cymru government will create a new arms-length trade and investment promotion agency for Wales, a WDA for the 21st century.
“This will be a public-private partnership, with strong representation from business on its board, autonomous from the Civil Service but answerable to government.
“It will use the restored WDA brand – as the Wales Development Agency – to work globally and throughout the UK, to attract new businesses to Wales, to boost Welsh global and intra-UK exports.”
“A renewed WDA is not an attempt to turn back the clock, rather to build on previous success and learn from past mistakes.
“It will facilitate the delivery of our economic plan at home and re-establish Wales as a recognisable, desirable centre for investment on the world stage.
“The initiatives I have described to you today I believe reflect the restlessness of Plaid Cymru.
“We are ready and are agitating for the opportunity to steer a new course for our country.
“To take Welsh economic expectations to a higher level.
“To pull all sectors of our country together so we are all aspiring for the same outcome.
“To re-establish Wales as an economic and industrial powerhouse for the benefit of its people and its communities.
“Plaid Cymru will end years of managed decline and our aim will be to make the next decade the decade of prosperity for Wales.”
