THE PRICE OF THAT RETIREMENT JOB...

It is a sad fact that the fate of our manufacturing industry (and our Steel industry) may be directly related to the fact that when members of the Westminster elite 'retire' from playing politics they tend to seek directorships with financial (city banks, etc) rather than directorships with manufacturing firms. This simple fact may directly show how divorced from the economic situation our manufacturing industry faces the Westminster elite have become and how furthering the economic interests of the city at all costs has become the Westminster elites central focus.

Quite how desperate the Westminster elite (and the City) have become in their efforts to tap into the finances of the People's Republic of China (one of the world's last brutal dictatorships) may be demonstrated by the fact that they recently chose to veto EU efforts to bring in tariffs to protect the European Steel industry from Chinese steel dumping.

The deterioration in the value of Welsh exports should be a real cause of concern, and is something that a Plaid Cymru government would address in government. The value of Wales’ exports has dropped alarmingly under this government by almost £2.5bn in two years. That’s a huge 17.5% drop at a time when other nations, by comparison, have managed to increase them.

Wales has historically performed well in the past. We export more than we import, and we compare much more favourably than other UK nations. What we need is a strategy to combat this trend. A Plaid Cymru government would establish a Wales Development Agency – a WDA fit for the 21^st century to work globally and throughout the UK, to boost Welsh exports and turn around Labour’s legacy of continued economic decline.

We want to sell our products, skills and ideas to the world. But unfortunately this is the second consecutive year where the value of Welsh exports have decreased significantly and the current Welsh Labour Government (and successive Westminster governments of various political hues) have shown no sign of producing a strategy to stop this continued decline.

The recent alarming figures, contrast with those from between 2007-2011 when Plaid Cymru Leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones was Minister for the Economy, Welsh exports increased by nearly £4.4bn, a 33% increase. During extremely difficult economic times, Plaid Cymru showed what real ambition and strong leadership can achieve. It’s now time for new leadership – Plaid Cymru is the change Wales desperately needs.

GROWING GREEN JOBS

News that Chepstow based manufacturer Mabey Bridge has won a multi-million pound order to build 35 wind turbine towers for UK sites is good news. The firm has taken on 45 people and transferred 50 more to its factory in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, after the deal with German company Nordex. Some of the towers will go to the Pant-y-Wal wind farm in Rhondda and the rest will go to Scotland. Mabey Bridge created 240 jobs when it opened its £38m factory in Chepstow in May 2011. The firm can produce up to 300 towers a year. The         production of the 120-tonne towers, will begin in mid-February with the factory working around the clock. The turbine towers, for Gilfach Goch in the Rhondda valleys, will be the first made by a Welsh company to be installed in Wales.