The Welsh Government’s plans to grow the financial and professional services sector in Wales to 200,000 people in the next 10 years was outlined to the Lord Mayor of London Fiona Woolf CBE during her visit to Cardiff yesterday.
Economy Minister Edwina Hart hosted a lunch for the Lord Mayor who is undertaking a programme of visits across the nations and regions of the UK.
The Lord Mayor’s principal role is an ambassador for all UK based financial and professional services and advising the UK Government on what is needed to help the financial services sector to function well.
Mrs Hart discussed the Welsh Government’s strategy of targeting London based institutions that are looking to expand and find cost effective solutions outside of London.
The Minister said: “Attracting significant investors from outside Wales is critical and London is the obvious choice for a concentrated effort. We have a compelling proposition in Wales for investors which has helped the financial and professional services sector grow faster than any other sector in Wales.
“The number of people employed in the sector grew from c124,000 in 2009/10 to c135,000 in 2011/12 which is a significant growth during difficult economic conditions.
“The meeting with the Lord Mayor today provided a good opportunity to highlight what Wales has to offer the sector in terms of Government support, Grade A office development under construction, an enterprise zone dedicated to the sector, and the availability of graduate level skills – some 20,000 students in the three universities in Cardiff study business-related courses such as Accounting, Banking, Economics and Law.
‘The Lord Mayor has an extensive programme of foreign visits covering 25 countries over some 90 days to promote the UK-based financial, business and professional services sector and today’s visit enabled us to provide detailed briefing on the sector in Wales.”
