Call to learn from '90s recession

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A former Welsh Secretary who was in government during the recession in the 1990s says lessons can be learned from that era to deal with current problems.

Lord David Hunt has called on the assembly government to bring in investment and jobs from overseas.

He said thousands of jobs were lost in the recession in the early '90s.

But unlike today, thousands of jobs were also being gained as companies from abroad, mainly Japan, established factories in Wales, he said.

Lord Hunt, who was the Conservative Welsh Secretary between 1990 and 1993, told BBC Wales' current affairs programme Week In Week Out: "Well it was very significant, whether it was British Airways at Cardiff Airport building their new facility there, SONY, Toyota, a number of Japanese companies, over 50 of them.

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"Now of course they're undergoing very difficult times, but so they did then too."

He said he believes there is still an opportunity to bring new jobs to Wales

"As the world slowly recovers from this very serious set back there will be an appetite to reinvest, there will be an appetite abroad in other countries to come and invest in the future," he said.

"And we can once again win the argument that Wales is the land of quality, this is the land to come to if you want a prosperous business and if you want a workforce that has a work ethic better than anywhere else in the world."

Lord Hunt was speaking to the current affairs programme as it revisited the 1990s recession to see how individuals and politicians coped with the economic crisis back then.

He admitted not everything worked out as hoped, he felt the tactic of bringing overseas jobs to Wales had paid off.

Presenter Sarah Dickins, who was BBC Wales' industrial correspondent during the last recession, also revisits people who lost their jobs during that period to find out what happened to them.

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