MANUFACTURING JOBS IN NEWPORT FALL BY OVER 40% SINCE 1999
A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE CANNOT RELY ON SERVICE SECTOR
a media release issued on Tuesday 26 March 2008 by William Graham AM
William Graham (Conservative AM for South Wales East) responding to Labour’s plans to create at least 5,000 over the next 4 years:
“Increasingly people are becoming aware that manufacturing industries are at the heart of thriving economies. Sustainable manufacturing jobs create the wealth that allows for enhanced the services modern governments seek to provide for their communities”.
“I welcome and support all proposals that allow Newport to attract wider inward investment, and every person the chance to realise their aspirations”.
“Newport currently has a unique opportunity to promote ‘all the City has to offer’. We need to be able to fully capitalise upon the Ryder Cup and Olympic Games; this will require promoting Newport with its dock, rail and motorway links, together with a skilled workforce, as the place to develop a future centre for manufacturing industries”.
“The reality is that whilst Labour claim they have created 7,000 jobs since 2003, the number of manufacturing jobs in the City has declined by over 40%. Since Labour took control of the National Assembly for Wales in 1999, manufacturing jobs in Newport have fallen from 17,444 to 10,323 (latest NOMIS figures for 2006: Feb 2008) a fall of 7,121”.
“Labour may claim that progress has been dramatic, but I question if it is ‘long-term’. An over-reliance upon the service sector may not be sustainable as recent global financial issues have clearly demonstrated”.
William Graham JP, AM
CHIEF WHIP, PARTY CHAIRMAN AND EUROPEAN SPOKESMAN
Email – William.Graham@Wales.gov.uk