LG, the South Korean industrial conglomerate is to announce plans to build a £1.7bn electronics complex in Newport, South Wales. It will be the biggest inward investment yet made in Europe.
Two factories, making semiconductors and television parts, will create 6,100 jobs at Imperial Park in Newport, a site near the M4.The move confirms the UK’s status as the preferred location in the EU for Korean companies.
But the contract has raised alarm among English regions. They believe Wales and Scotland have unfair advantages in attracting investment because of their own government departments and well-funded agencies. The Welsh Office and the Welsh Development Agency are understood to be offering the LG project generous grants of up to £200m, or £30,000 per job created.
The Independent reports that, as a result of this concern, John Major has intervened to prevent regional development agencies in different parts of the country from bidding against each other for prestige inward investment projects. He has called together ministers from the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland offices, plus representatives from their regional development agencies, to emphasise the need for co-operation. The move is meant to ensure that there is no conflict between government departments in the run-up to a general election.
- The Financial Times 10/7/96 page 1, page 20, page 7
- The Daily Telegraph 10/7/96 page 2
- The Times 10/7/96 page 25, page 26
- The Independent 10/7/96 page 17
