Inward investment in Wales further evidence

Thursday 30 June 2011  

As part of its ongoing inquiry into inward investment in Wales, Parliament’s Welsh Affairs Committee will visit the Airbus factory site at Broughton in Wales on Thursday 30 June 2011. Members of the Committee will have the opportunity to inspect current operations, including a tour of the West factory, where the Airbus A380 wings are being assembled, as well as visiting the “Composite Training and Development Centre” opened last year to provide training to personnel in research and development on new wing-building technologies.

Chair of the Committee, David TC Davies MP, said: “This is a major inquiry for the Committee - attracting and retaining inward investment is vital to the future prosperity of Wales. I am particularly pleased that we will be visiting this important facility to look both at its current operations and at the centre they have recently opened to provide training for innovation and development: things crucial to the future of Wales’ economy. We are building on our last visit in this inquiry to Tata’s steelworks at Port Talbot, and we expect this visit will be just as informative and rewarding”.

In the afternoon the Committee will take formal evidence at the OpTIC Business Incubation Centre at St Asaph.

Witnesses

Thursday 30 June 2011

2.15pm Katherine Bennett OBE, Vice President, Head of Political Affairs, and Steve Thomas, Government Affairs Executive, Airbus; Leighton Davies, Finance Director, GE Aviation Services – Wales; and Tim Wheeler, Industrial Participation Specialist, Boeing.

3.00pm Professor Michael Scott, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, Mr Andrew Parry, Executive Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor and Head of Corporate Communications, Glyndŵr University and Mr Tony Hawkins, Managing Director, Glyndŵr Innovations; Karen Padmore, Business Development Director, Bangor University, and James Goodman, Project Development Manager, Bangor University.

For more information about the inquiry: Inward Investment in Wales

Notes to editors:

1. Members of press and broadcast media who would like to attend the visit to the Airbus factory in the morning with the Members of the Committee please contact Alex Paterson on 020 7219 2003.

2. The afternoon evidence session is open to the public and members of the press are welcome to attend. Please note however that if you wish to film or photograph this evidence session being held outside Parliament certain rules apply – please contact the media officer Alex Paterson for more information.

3. Media Information: Alex Paterson patersona@parliament.uk tel: 020 7219 2003

Committee Membership is as follows: David T. C. Davies MP (Chair), Stuart Andrew MP, Guto Bebb MP, Geraint Davies MP, Jonathan Edwards MP, Mrs Siân C. James MP, Susan Elan Jones MP, Karen Lumley MP, Jessica Morden MP, Owen Smith MP, Robin Walker MP, Mr Mark Williams MP.

Specific Committee Information: welshcom@parliament.uk tel: 020 7219 6189

Committee Website: http://www.parliament.uk/welshcom

Watch committees and parliamentary debates online: www.parliamentlive.tv

Publications / Reports / Reference Material: Copies of all select committee reports are available from the Parliamentary Bookshop (12 Bridge St, Westminster, 020 7219 3890) or the Stationery Office (0845 7023474). Committee reports, press releases, evidence transcripts, Bills; research papers, a directory of MPs, plus Hansard (from 8am daily) and much more, can be found on www.parliament.uk.