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Business News Wales
11 hours ago
- Business
- Business News Wales
A Welsh Perspective from London Tech Week
Mark John, Co-Founder of Tramshed Tech and Board Member of the UK Tech Cluster Last week, I had the privilege of representing Tramshed Tech as a Strategic Partner at London Tech Week, an experience that proved as energising as it was eye-opening. From international roundtables and policy briefings to investor panels and startup showcases, the week was a powerful snapshot of where the UK tech sector is heading and where Wales fits within that evolving picture. What unfolded was not just a packed agenda of meetings and events, but a timely reminder of the growing role regional ecosystems like ours are playing on the global tech stage. Monday Wow… what a way to start. I arrived in London early Monday, armed with an ambitious schedule and a suitcase full of Tramshed brochures, not quite prepared for the sheer scale of what lay ahead. First stop: 'Innovating Beyond Borders' at the Québec Government Office. This was a great moment to deepen ties with our Canadian friends, as well as spark a new connection with McGill University's Dobson Centre. The conversations there reminded me how vital global collaboration is to developing innovation clusters, something we're working hard to lead in Wales. Next, I headed to the Welsh Government offices for the InterCeltic Business Forum, where the room was filled with a real sense of cross-border opportunity. It's always good to be reminded of the cultural and economic ties Wales shares with its Celtic cousins and how those shared values can become a competitive advantage in the global market. The day wrapped with the UK Startup Coalition reception at the Trafalgar St James rooftop. From pre-Spending Review conversations with Chancellor Rachel Reeves to chats with friends from across the UK tech cluster network, it was clear that policy and ecosystem alignment are climbing up the national agenda—and fast. Tuesday–Thursday These days were a full-on tech marathon. Olympia played host to a flurry of meetings, chance encounters, and purposeful introductions. Tramshed's headline moment came on the LTW Startup Stage as we showcased some of Wales' most exciting emerging ventures from green tech to gaming. Seeing our cohort pitch on a global stage, backed by our brilliant Head of Ventures, Sophie Webber, was a moment of real pride. At the Global Tech Advocates breakfast in the City, I spoke on behalf of Tech Wales Advocates and was struck again by how interconnected the global tech community is becoming. Conversations with peers from India, China, the Nordics, and the Middle East reaffirmed that Wales has a genuine opportunity to carve out a place in that global network, if we keep pushing. A standout moment came at DSIT in Whitehall, where I joined a UK Tech Cluster Group roundtable with Baroness Jones of Whitchurch and the DSIT leadership team. We discussed what the Chancellor's Spending Review could mean in practice, particularly the boost to AI and R&D, and the increased remit for the British Business Bank. The details are still to come, but the direction of travel is encouraging: more place-based investment, and more regional autonomy to shape growth. Thursday Evening If there was a single event that summed up the week, it was Invest in Innovation: The Welsh Opportunity, our flagship event at the 23rd floor of The Shard. With stunning views over London, we delivered a full-throttle showcase of Welsh tech excellence. David Stevens, Co-Founder of Admiral, reminded the room exactly what Wales is capable of when the right conditions align. From world-class data talent to unmatched workforce loyalty, his message was clear: Wales works. That theme continued with our investment panel, where the message from investors was unambiguous—Wales is investable, scalable, and open for business. London advisors were told to set up shop. Founders were told to base themselves in Wales. And investors? Start building your Welsh portfolio. The time is now. Friday After a late-night return on what I'll always call 'The Milk Train,' it was straight to Cardiff City Stadium for the Made in the UK, Sold to the World roadshow. As a keynote speaker, I had the opportunity to reflect on the week and its broader message: exporting isn't a bonus for tech companies—it's the beginning. Most of the startups we support at Tramshed Tech are already reaching global markets before they've reached ten employees. Exporting is baked into their DNA. And what London Tech Week reinforced is that Wales is absolutely ready to meet that global demand. Final Reflections London Tech Week was more than a calendar of events, it was a mirror. A chance to see how far Wales has come as a tech ecosystem, and how much further we can go if we back our startups, invest in our infrastructure, and believe in our own ability to lead. As we look ahead to the Wales Investment Summit later this year, the challenge is simple: keep connecting the dots. Global relevance starts with local ambition and last week showed just how much of that we already have.
BBC News
17-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Green energy: Controversial Bridgend hydrogen plant plans approved
Controversial plans to build a new hydrogen energy facility have been given the go-ahead despite years of public and council concern. Japanese firm Marubeni Europower wants to create a hydrogen storage and refuelling unit, as well as a solar energy scheme across two sites in Bryncethin and Brynmenyn, in Bridgend 2023 Bridgend council pulled out of financially backing the plans, but the firm continued its application, which was then halted in November 2024 following safety Welsh government paused the application, but has withdrawn its holding direction allowing the council to finally approve the plan. The plans have faced significant opposition and public backlash from residents and councillors over the last few years due to the site's proximity to businesses and nearby earlier version of the application was also withdrawn after the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) lodged an objection over how hydrogen would be stored and transported at the these concerns, and with a new application handed in, the project was later granted a hazardous substance consent at a special council planning committee that took place in February this meeting, which lasted about four hours and led to numerous heated exchanges between residents and officers, it was determined the final decision would be that of the Welsh government as it had put a holding direction in place. Holding directions allow Welsh ministers to restrict the grant of planning permission by the local planning authority. The planning committee heard earlier that this pause was withdrawn because the issues raised "are not of more than local importance", according to the Welsh government. Following the meeting, councillor Mark John of St Bride's Minor and Ynysawdre ward added he was "mortified" by the Welsh government's decision to remove the holding direction after such a strong public sentiment against the plans.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's tariff formula confounds the world, punishes the poor
By Mark John (Reuters) - Ridiculed for imposing trade tariffs on frozen islands largely inhabited by penguins, Donald Trump's formula for calculating those levies has a serious side: it is also hitting some of the world's poorest nations hardest. The math is simple: take the U.S. goods trade deficit with a country, divide it by that country's exports to the U.S. and turn it into a percentage figure; then cut that figure in half to produce the U.S. "reciprocal" tariff, with a floor of 10%. That's how the volcanic Australian territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the Antarctic ended up with a 10% tariff. The penguins got off lightly, you might say. But Madagascar - one of the poorest nations in the world with gross domestic product (GDP) per head of just over $500 - meanwhile faces a 47% tariff on the modest $733 million of exports of vanilla, metals and apparel that it did with the U.S. last year. "Presumably no one is buying Teslas there," John Denton, head of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), told Reuters, an ironic reference to the improbability of Madagascar being able to placate Trump by buying upmarket U.S. products. Madagascar is not alone: the bluntness of the formula as applied to economies which cannot afford to import much from the U.S. inevitably leads to a high reciprocal tally: 50% for Lesotho in Southern Africa, 49% for Cambodia in Southeast Asia. "The biggest losers are Africa and Southeast Asia," said Denton, adding the move "risks further damaging the development prospects of countries already facing worsening terms of trade". RICH NATIONS ALSO STUNG But the formula is also sowing confusion among rich countries. For the European Union it has produced a punitive tariff of 20% - four times the 5% which the World Trade Organization calculates as the EU's average tariff rate. "So, at least for us, it is a colossal inaccuracy," said Stefano Berni, General Manager of the consortium representing makers of the Grana Padano speciality cheese in Italy. "It costs us three times as much today to enter the U.S. as it does for U.S. cheeses to enter our market," he said in a statement. Asked about its methodology, White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai posted on X that "we literally calculated tariff and non-tariff barriers" and included a screenshot of a White House paper setting out the algebra behind the formula. Asked on CNBC how the Trump administration came up with the formula, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick did not directly explain it but said United States Trade Representative (USTR) economists had worked for years on a metric that reflected all trade barriers set up by a given country. But economists across the world rushed to point out that the terms cancelled each other out in such a way that it could be reduced to a simple quotient of goods trade deficit over goods trade exports. "There is really no methodology there," said Mary Lovely, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute. "It is like finding you have cancer and finding the medication is based on your weight divided by your age. The word 'reciprocal' is deeply misleading." Robert Kahn, managing director, global macro for Eurasia Group consultancy, agreed that it produced "a lot of these kind of nonsense numbers that aren't material". "It sends a signal ... that we are pulling back from our relationships and alliances with them and is a cold shower to a lot of our traditional allies," he told Reuters. Others noted that it also raised questions over the widely held view that Trump is launching an opening gambit in what will be one-on-one discussions with individual countries that will ultimately see the new U.S. tariffs sharply reduced. "The U.S. has chosen a methodology that is essentially mechanical," said Stephen Adams, a former European trade adviser who now works for Global Counsel consultancy. "One practical question it does raise is whether there's any scope to negotiate this away ... The U.S. hasn't identified any specific measures that might be changed in order to convince the president to change his mind." (Writing and reporting by Mark John; additional reporting by Giselda Vagnoni in Rome; Kate Holton in London; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-Europe faces stark choices over Russian asset seizure
By Mark John (Reuters) - Growing challenges to the euro's status as a reserve currency in a fast-changing global economy are, for now, staying the hand of European capitals as they weigh up the repercussions of a potential seizure of frozen Russian assets. Nevertheless, Europe faces an increasingly urgent need to help bankroll Ukraine's survival as President Donald Trump looks to pull the plug on U.S. support and instead bargain with Russia's Vladimir Putin. That throws a spotlight on the roughly $300 billion of Russian central bank assets frozen by the West after Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine three years ago, the bulk of which is held in Europe - mainly as government bonds, the profits from which are used to guarantee loans to Ukraine. While seizing those assets outright may be very tempting, such actions have a long and legally fraught history, and could scare off other central banks looking to park assets in Europe. An early example of such action cited by European economists in research last year was the Soviet confiscation of gold shipped to Moscow by the National Bank of Romania back in 1918. The wars of the 20th century yielded dozens more examples. But European officials who pride themselves on the region's respect for the rule of law are fighting shy of any breach of the legally enshrined immunity of sovereign assets. "This is not for the European Central Bank to debate, but I would certainly submit that the international law basis on which any decision is made will matter as far as other investors are concerned," ECB President Christine Lagarde said last week. The final decision rests not with the ECB but its political masters in Berlin, Paris and the other 18 capitals of the euro countries. But they will not take Lagarde's argument lightly. "No-one has any interest in doing things that would weaken our system now, which is also being widely attacked elsewhere via trade, tariff, customs policies," French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said last week of threats by Trump to impose hefty new levies on European exports. DOLLAR DOMINANCE Europe has long had to accept that the euro is unlikely to challenge the dominance of the dollar as a reserve currency - briefly an aspiration in the heady days after its 1999 birth. In fact since 2010, the share of global currency reserves held in the euro has dropped from 25.8% at current exchange rates to 20% as other currencies gain traction. Even the dollar has slipped slightly, while still accounting for 58.4%. In a report last year on the euro's international standing, Lagarde cited challenges ranging from the emergence of other units as trade-invoicing currencies through to renewed interest in gold as a reserve asset in troubled times. Some, however, question the rationale of even seeking to position the euro as a major reserve currency given the weak points in its construction, already exposed in debt crises 15 years ago. "If we assume that this is a political ambition, then indeed the euro is handicapped by the absence of capital markets union, the lack of a euro safe asset and the lack of fully fledged banking union," said Hans Geeroms, a professor at the College of Europe and a visiting fellow at the EU think tank Bruegel. Those were among the failings identified by former ECB chief Mario Draghi in a report last year on how Europe can avoid the "slow agony" of an economy falling further behind U.S. and Asian rivals. Yet scant progress has been made on them even now. RISING BILL But if such fragilities help explain why Europe is wary of anything which could weaken the credibility of its currency, wider geopolitical considerations are closing in. Participants at Thursday's summit on boosting European defence spending said no decisions on Russian asset seizures were taken in the talks, with one EU diplomat confirming that Germany, France and Belgium - home to the Euroclear securities depository where many of the assets are parked - had restated their opposition. However Mitu Gulati, an expert on sovereign debt law at the University of Virginia, said Trump's reversal of U.S. policy on Ukraine had shocked Europeans into "looking to do the things they weren't willing to do six months ago. "The same people that said we are not going to do (full seizure) are calling now to say we are interested," said Gulati, who declined to elaborate on which countries he had spoken to. One euro zone central banker who requested anonymity agreed the political pressure to consider confiscation was mounting. "The ECB's advice won't change," the banker said. "But this may not sway politicians. The bill for Ukraine has just gone up a lot, and this makes this money so much more attractive." (Additional reporting by Marc Jones in London, Francesco Canepa in Frankfurt, Andrew Gray, Lili Bayer, Jan Strupczewski in Brussels, John Irish in Paris; Graphic by Harry Robertson in London; Writing by Mark John; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
