Standard bearer calls for greater exploitation of Cardiff economic zone

Cardiff is a tremendous success story that should be exploited much more by the wider city-region according to the former head of Standard Chartered, Lord Davies of Abersoch.

Speaking at an Institute of Welsh Affairs conference in his capacity as the UK Minister for Trade, Investment and Small Business, Lord Davies took the opportunity to outline the strengths of the UK’s inward investment offer and highlighted a number of areas where the UK leads the world.  These areas include mobile phone technology, ICT, higher education, financial and professional services, life sciences and composite technologies.
Lord Davies also praised the successful regeneration of Cardiff over the last 10 years.  He said:

“For ease of doing business, the UK is the 5th best placed nation in the world.  And in that respect, Cardiff is a key part of the offer.

“It’s been unbelievable to see how Cardiff has been regenerated over the last 10-15 years.  Cardiff really has been a huge success story, one that we don’t celebrate enough in my opinion, and I say that as somebody who hails from North Wales.

Developing his theme, Lord Davies called for greater effort to be put into exploiting Cardiff’s relative strength in the market place for the greater good of the wider economic area.

“It’s a fantastic regeneration story and we need to celebrate it more and build it into an economic zone” he said.  “Cardiff offers so much potential to its surrounding area provided we plan on the basis of this wider economic zone or city-region, with an emphasis on connectivity, for example rail links.”