0.1 Regions and clusters  (Page 11/15)

In 2009 Professor John Harries was appointed to the post of Chief Scientific Advisor for Wales.

The wales spatial plan

Spatial Planning refers to the methods used by the public sector to plan activities within a space and has been used extensively in the European Union for planning within regions since 1984 (ESPON 2007). ‘ People, Places, Futures: The Wales Spatial Plan ’ (WAG 2004c) represents WAG’s vision of future development across Wales. The vision encompasses all aspects of future development including transport, health, education and economic development. The planning process examines Wales in the context of six distinct regions as shown in [link] .

The economic vision for Wales described in the Wales Spatial Plan highlights the importance of the Knowledge Economy with focus upon the provision of opportunities that harness the skills and knowledge of the people (Wales Spatial Plan, 2004):

“We need an innovative, high value economy for Wales which utilises and develops the skills and knowledge of our people: an economy which both creates wealth and allows that prosperity to be spread throughout Wales: an economy which adds to the quality of people’s lives as well as their living and working environments.”

To achieve this vision, the plan lays out the need for engagement between public, business and other partners. It presents a range of actions for the region and Wales as a whole including taking forward of strategies such as the Skills and Employment Action Plan and Creative Industries Strategy along with investment in knowledge transfer initiatives such as Technium.

As part of this Spatial Planning Exercise overseen by the Welsh Assembly Government each region must select and develop themes for its future development.

In line with the Lisbon Agenda of the European Union, the region of Swansea Bay, Waterfront and Western Valleys is focusing on building upon its Knowledge Economy foundations to provide a prosperous and sustainable future for its communities. This embodies in the vision for the region described in the Wales Spatial Plan. The charge to develop the Knowledge Economy described in the Plan makes direct reference to the roles of both Swansea University and Technium:

• Retaining young people and attract well-qualified people from outside the area to provide a stimulus for improved economic performance.
• The University, FE Colleges and Technia should embed the Knowledge Economy within the area.

The ‘objective one’ era – 1999-2006

The continuing challenge

Wales entered the new millennium equipped with a new Assembly to fulfil its ambitions, but much like its devolved neighbours of Northern Ireland and Scotland was about to attempt this in the face of economic decline, poor conditions for entrepreneurship and the disinvestment caused by globalisation (Cooke and Clifton 2005).

The scale of this challenge is highlighted by the fact that Wales, with 5 percent of the UK population, only contributes 4.5 percent of total economically active persons and 3.9 percent of GDP in the UK. The Welsh Assembly Government has set itself the target of closing the gap with the rest of the UK economy by raising per capita GDP to 90% of UK levels within a generation (WAG 2001). This target is an enormous aspiration that would require national economic performance to be raised to a level not seen in a century. This is shown in [link] presented Crafts recently to a conference in Cardiff.