Western Gateway driving investment at MIPIM 2023
The Western Gateway was proud to support our partners at MIPIM 2023. The event was an opportunity to continue to make the case for South Wales and Western England. Following his visit, our Director, John Wilkinson, shares his thoughts:
"It was great to spend a few days in MIPIM this year supporting our partners from Invest Bristol and Bath and Cardiff Capital Region.
MIPIM (Marché International des Professionnels d'Immobilier) is described as the world’s largest real estate market event. It brings together investors, developers, and professional service providers with countries and city regions that have investor ready assets and projects.
I think it’s always important to reflect on why we need to attend these types of events and how we can use them to attract investment to our area. As a partnership, we were there to showcase the huge opportunities across our area and why we believe we can be the UK’s Green Energy Powerhouse.
It was great to be alongside our colleagues from other UK cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle but also other globally known regions from across Europe and further afield.
We’re all competing globally for investment so it’s important for the Western Gateway to be included on the international stage, showing why our area is such a great place to live and work. With world leading industry and innovative business clusters, we know our area has the skilled workforce businesses need to help us achieve a Net Zero economy.
We want to export our best ideas to the rest of the world so they can also benefit from our innovation and talent. Tackling these big challenges requires cooperation and partnership – none of us can do this alone!
It was wonderful to be able to talk about our plans to provide transformational benefits to communities with our Rail Vision 2050 and discuss our independent commission to harness sustainable energy in the Severn Estuary in a way that supports people and nature. We are developing pathways to produce, store and distribute clean energy into the Western Gateway and beyond.
We believe we have what it takes to drive the transition to net zero in a way that raises productivity and supports the creation of good quality jobs for our communities to deliver a greener, fairer future for all. MIPIM gave us the opportunity to discuss our plans whilst also raising the profile of our area with people and businesses who share our ambitions.
As we look forward, we are also planning our presence with our partners to UKREIIF 2023 in Leeds in May. This will be another key opportunity to put the Western Gateway even more firmly on the global stage.
If you’re planning to attend – make sure to come and see us and the best of what our area has to offer at Pavillion 2."
