Wales 'set to be most under-developed in advanced world' claims report. Wales is "well on the way to becoming the most under-developed land in the advanced post-industrial world”, according to a new report. Offa’s Gap – written by former MP Adam Price with Plaid’s economics adviser Eurfyl ap Gwilym – says Welsh firms running the NHS and schools in England could help rescue Wales from its position as the worst-performing regional economy in the European Union.
The report diagnoses the nature of Wales’ economic decline and suggests how improvements could be made over a generation. The report says: “Wales, once a powerhouse of economic progress, now finds itself at the bottom of the UK’s and, increasingly, the EU’s prosperity league tables. We are well on the way to becoming the most under-developed land in the advanced post-industrial world.”
According to the report, Wales was doing well economically until the mid-1990s, holding its own with the rest of the UK and even out-performing other regions in terms of attracting inward investment, for example. WalesOnline - Wales news, Welsh business news, jobs in Wales. HMS Glamorgan’s casualties to be honoured at long last.
IT is known as the “forgotten ship” of the Falklands, despite the death of 14 crew members just before the conflict’s end. But a poignant ceremony is to be held on the Falkland Islands next week in memory of HMS Glamorgan. While other ships involved in the conflict – like HMS Sheffield, Coventry and Antelope, as well as Argentine cruiser the General Belgrano – spring to mind, HMS Glamorgan is far less well-known. But it was hit by a deadly Exocet missile just two days before the Argentine surrender. A total of 14 crew died and Glamorgan came within moments of blowing up, with the loss of hundreds of lives.
When the ship’s former Navigating Officer, Commander Ian Inskip, visited the Falklands with his wife Marianne in 2003 they saw memorials on the islands for all the ships lost and all units which had suffered significant casualties, except for HMS Glamorgan. The memorial is now located at Hookers Point, close to where the Exocet was fired, and will be unveiled this month. Wales 'set to be most under-developed in advanced world' claims report. Welsh inward investment figures still 'worrying' despite jobs created up on previous year - Business News - Business. Wales remains near the bottom of the UK league table for attracting inward investment both in terms of number of projects and resulting jobs created and safeguarded –although the UK Government has accepted that latest published figures for Wales are somewhat understated.
Following a Freedom of Information request to the UK Government’s inward investment body UKTI, it has provided a breakdown of the number of jobs – both safeguarded and new – from inward investment projects for all the nations and the regions of the UK. Earlier this month UKTI only provided headline figures for the UK as a whole – which for 2011-12 showed 1,406 foreign direct investment projects into the UK, which promised to safeguard or create 112.659 jobs.
For Wales the UKTI investment figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows only 23 projects, creating or safeguarding 2,854 jobs. Year-on-year this represented a fall in jobs of 852 ( down 19%), while the 23 projects compared with 38 in 2010-11. Why Wales plc needs to support barrage scheme - Business News - Business. IF there is one project that Wales plc should give its full support to it is a barrage across the Severn Estuary, which its backers say would generate 5% of the UK’s electricity needs with renewable tidal energy. Proposals to harness the world’s second largest tidal range date back to Victorian times. However, there now seems real momentum behind a project – from Lavernock Point in the Vale of Glamorgan across to the Somerset coast – being spearheaded by the Corlan Hafren consortium. Last week the consortium which includes Halcrow and Arup – and which is being backed by former Welsh Secretary Peter Hain – held a constructive meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron.
Further meetings are now planned with other ministers, including Environment Secretary Ed Davey. What is needed is for the UK Government to give such a guarantee with an effective subsidy currently afforded to other renewable markets such as onshore and offshore wind farms.