Welsh high-tech ambition receives jobs boost

The Welsh Development Agency's (WDA) campaign to become Europe's leading ebusiness development region received a boost today, with the news that 10,416 jobs were created in the region last year.

The WDA annual report also revealed a further 9,573 jobs were safeguarded and private sector investment generated £758m return - more than £200m ahead of target.

The performance in Wales matches similar levels achieved in Scotland for the same period - the Highlands' annual report published in June showed a total of 19,334 jobs created or safeguarded, the highest ever recorded in a single year.

Sir David Rowe-Beddoe, chairman of WDA, heralded the employment figures as the second highest in the history of the agency. And he claimed that initiatives put in place over the last few months will enable Wales to meet similar levels of growth in the coming year, with particular emphasis on making companies IT proficient and encouraging more investment in high-tech and dot-com start-ups.

A key initiative was the public and privately funded programme to have high bandwidth access installed throughout the country - even rural areas in Wales will receive ADSL access.

Rowe-Beddoe exclaimed: "I've been told that we now have more fibre optic cable in place per square kilometre than anywhere else in Europe, although that is likely to change very quickly, it does give us a very strong lead."

He added: "There is a lot of ebusiness excitement in Cardiff and we are trying to get that to the rest of the country."

Carmel Gahan, project manager at Swig, a welsh ISP, welcomed today's figures. "These initiatives from the WDA could help alleviate the national skills crisis because there is a large skills base in the area and salaries are lower."