ABSTRACT
Foreign Direct Investment has become a major issue for economic development policies at all spatial levels, from global to local. In the UK, FDI has been seen as a key component of regional policy in helping to reduce regional economic disparities. Development agencies and local authorities have been targeting FDI in an attempt to create jobs and strengthen their local and regional economies. Nowhere has this been more the case than in Wales, where the Welsh Development Agency has been working closely with local authorities and others to attract FDI. One of the main reasons cited by the government in support of the Welsh Assembly, created in 1999, has been the strategic advantages it provides for Wales in attracting FDI.
