Perspectives 2019

IN CONVERSATION In this series, we take a step back to ask some of our clients about their work and shine a light on their industry. Kellie Beirne, who heads the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) City Deal, talks to Cushman & Wakefield about their large-scale programme to boost growth in South East Wales. Can you tell us about the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal? How did it all start? The CCR City Deal is basically the cornerstone of our strategy to build a better future for South East Wales and produce inclusive economic growth through investment, up- skilling and co-operation. Set up by the UK and Welsh governments alongside ten local borough counties, we provide operational delivery capacity for a £1.3bn programme that will enhance the connectivity of our region, boost collaborative opportunities, and make it a highly networked place to do business. We also want to build sustainability and resilience so that the region can be more self-reliant and better able to anticipate future economic events. As part of our initial research, we carried out comprehensive sectoral analysis to identify the region’s commercial USPs: among the sectors we identified as promising were compound semiconductor manufacture, fintech, medical devices and AI. Using this insight, we co-developed a detailed Industrial and Economic Growth Plan with industry and local government, which we have now converted into what we call our Investment and Intervention Framework. This simply sets out how we do business – but not in a business-as-usual way! By Kellie Beirne , Director of the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal PERSPECTIVES 08 IN CONVERSATION A new future for South East Wales