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IBW's JUSTIFICATION

Whilst a row rumbles on about the cost of reviewing travel arrangements for International Business Wales, it would seem that their team in North America - based at the Chrysler building in New York -is quietly getting on with the job of getting business into Welsh companies.

According to a report on the Business Wire, exports from Wales rose faster over the last year than any region of the UK.

Exports from Wales were up 8.4 percent for the year, powered by a 12.7 percent increase in sales to North America, Wales’ second largest trading partner.

Figures from the HM Revenue & Customs Service show that total Welsh exports were £10.258 billion for the 12 months ended June 30, up from £9.5 billion in the same period the year before. Welsh companies sold products worth £2.5 billion to North America.
During the same period the total value of exports for England fell by 1.2 per cent to £169 billion.

According to the article, Relcom Solutions - which attended the U.S. trade mission earlier this year - has developed a software package known as Merlyn that automates maintenance programs for manufacturing equipment.

"As a result of the trade mission, a major American global automation corporation is interested in our software,” said Rhisiard Jenkins, Relcom's Managing Director".

Other Welsh companies are increasing their U.S. business, including Biotec Services International Ltd., a pharmaceutical contract services company, and Biocatalyst Ltd., a manufacturer of enzymes sold primarily to food producers. Wales-based Sureview Systems International Ltd. has also sold its automated software for monitoring closed circuit television stations to circuit firms throughout the U.S. as a result of the trade mission.

I await the congratulations of our Assembly Members for this excellent performance in outperforming the rest of the UK during the worst recession since the Second World war with bated breath.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Yes it appears IBW is worth far more to Wales than Kirsty Williams and her expenses (inc an estimated £150k + final audit fee) for the IBW non scandal
September 25, 2009 2:40 pm
Dave said…
The most disappointing thing about this whole debacle is the total silence from ieuan Wyn Jones over this issue. He should have been defending his inward investment team from the word go and has chosen instead to feed them to the wolves. Pathetic.
September 25, 2009 4:43 pm
Anonymous said…
I hate to be pedantic, but shouldn't these export figures be in billions rather than millions.

According to the Assembly's own statistics site, exports for Wales in Quarter 2 2009 alone were £2.412bn.

I realise the economy isn't doing too great at the moment but still........
September 25, 2009 6:22 pm
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
No, you are right.

It would seem that a full stop was substituted for a comma as I have found the data at

https://www.uktradeinfo.com/pagecontent/downloads/RtsPressRQ209.pdf

Probably the rush to get the good news out....I have changed the data accordingly.
September 26, 2009 8:47 am
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