The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) and GlobalWelsh have joined forces to form a new partnership to promote the region on a global level and facilitate economic prosperity and social wellbeing for Wales.
GlobalWelsh is a not-for-profit organisation focused on connecting Wales to the Welsh diaspora around the world to enable Wales and the people of Wales to excel and prosper. Through the building of a global community on GlobalWelsh Connect, its aim is to facilitate the creation of new connections, new insights, and new opportunities for its members located in more than 40 countries. GlobalWelsh’s initiatives and programmes are focused on having a positive economic impact on Wales and its members around the world through the facilitation of investment, trade, networking, mentoring, and learning opportunities.
As part of CCR’s drive to connect Wales to an international audience, the new partnership aims to work collaboratively on the joint ambition to promote the Welsh south east region to drive economic growth and to connect to diaspora around the world. It will also aim to support the ambition to help CCR entrepreneurs and SME’s build successful businesses that can face the future with confidence.
The initial plans of the partnership are detailed below:
1. Support for CCR SME Business sector
- Utilising GlobalWelsh’s MyMentor Global Mentoring programme, the partnership will offer business mentoring services for free to all companies that currently participate in the CCR Graduate Scheme.
- Under these exclusive arrangements, both the business leader and the graduate involved will be offered the opportunity to connect with a diaspora mentor for a period of 12 months.
- By linking the benefit to graduate recruitment, the CCR is looking to provide added support to those businesses who are seeking to take on new skills to help them adapt to the new economic reality.
2. Robust Research
- As part of the mentoring arrangement, the CCR recipients will be invited to participate in a qualitative research exercise that aims to quantify the benefit of diaspora networking and mentoring on the performance of individuals and businesses.
- This research will help inform future decisions on the provision of networking and mentoring support for SMEs within the CCR.
3. City Hubs
- As part of the new partnership, two new city hubs will be set-up in Dublin and the USA. The city hubs, which will work similar to the existing GlobalWelsh city hubs, will help reconnect people with Wales, connect like-minded individuals and promote far and wide that the CCR is open for business and is a truly investable region. GlobalWelsh currently has city hubs in several global locations, such as London, Beijing, Tokyo and Dublin.
Walter May, founder and CEO of GlobalWelsh, said:
“Like us, Cardiff Capital Region is an economically focused organisation looking to have a positive impact on people, businesses and future prosperity here in Wales. Our activities and ambitions align very well so we are extremely excited to announce this partnership and embark on the opportunity to have a more tangible impact across the region through our joint activities.”
Kellie Beirne, Director CCR City Deal, said:
“I am delighted to partner with GlobalWelsh. This is a partnership where we have true alignment of purpose and values, and the huge scope for potential future collaboration is genuinely exciting.
“The areas we have identified for initial working enable us to start to address, in a unique way, a few of the objectives in our recently published ‘CCR Post Covid-19 10 priorities’ – most notably on ensuring entrepreneurs, start-ups and SME’s get the support they need through facilitating access to expertise, including mentor programmes and networking groups, and the sharing of best practice advice and guidance. In addition, the ability to increase opportunities to market the CCR to potential inward investors on a global stage is now more important than ever.
“I look forward to developing our working relationship and to making it a truly rewarding partnership arrangement for all parties.”