Wales already has an investor network. It just hasn't called them yet.

Walter May explores why Wales' diaspora should sit at the heart of the push for inward investment, especially beyond the M4

Whenever inward investment in Wales comes up, the conversation seems to end in the same place. How do we get more of it? And how do we get it into the parts of Wales beyond the M4 corridor?

I think this year gives us a genuine chance to answer both. We have a new Welsh Government, a new international development agency being designed from scratch, and a Westminster committee that has told government, in plain terms, to take the Welsh diaspora seriously. Having spent years talking to that diaspora, I can say with some confidence that they are ready to be asked.

Where things stand

Inward investment into the UK has had a tough couple of years, with the number of new foreign investment projects falling to its lowest level in years. Wales has held up better than most, but that is cold comfort when the overall pot is shrinking and the jobs attached to each project are getting smaller.

The longer view is more sobering. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Wales won around 15% of all UK inward investment projects. Today it is in single figures. And Wales, sadly, still has the lowest productivity of any UK nation or region.

The real question is where investment lands in Wales, and what it leaves behind.

Beyond the M4

It's tempting to describe Wales as a country split by the M4, with prosperity along the motorway and struggle everywhere else. The reality is messier. Flintshire and Wrexham is actually the most productive part of Wales. The places falling furthest behind are rural and upland Wales and the heads of the valleys. In 2021, Powys had the lowest productivity of anywhere in the UK.

The four city and growth deals tell a similar story. The Cardiff Capital Region and Swansea Bay deals are well funded and now delivering. The Mid Wales deal, the smallest of the four, is only just getting its first project off the ground. And the North Wales Growth Deal, which is meant to create 4,000 jobs, has so far created fewer than 150.

The regions with the most money and the best connections are delivering. The regions that need investment most have the least funding and the slowest progress.

An Welsh investor network… that’s not in Wales

There are an estimated three to four million people with Welsh connections living outside Wales. That is roughly the population of the country again. For far too long we have treated them as a cultural footnote. I think they are one of the biggest economic resources Wales has, and we are barely using it.

Our Brain Drain to Brain Gain research, carried out with the support of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, surveyed more than 1,700 members of the diaspora. What came back looks nothing like the nostalgic expat of popular imagination. These are highly educated people working at senior levels in technology, finance, engineering and the professions.

The figure that stays with me most is this: we identified more than 400 business owners and managers in the survey, some running companies with hundreds of staff. Only around 3% of those businesses have any operations in Wales.

It isn't for lack of interest. More than a hundred of them told us they actively want to build links with Wales. Most of those who have already invested here found the opportunity through friends and family, not through any formal route.

So what is stopping them? The answers were refreshingly practical. They don't know what opportunities exist, they don't know who to talk to, and most have never heard of any government programme aimed at them.

The demand is there but nobody is making the introduction. 

Deep rooted loyalties

This is the part of the research I find most striking. People connected to North and Mid Wales were more willing than anyone else to move back for a long period, and around a quarter of them run their own business.

In other words, the parts of Wales where growth deals are struggling most are the parts whose diaspora is most ready to come home, and most likely to bring a business with them.

That regional loyalty runs deep, and it can be put to work. Our work with Dragons RFC on the Gwent diaspora showed how. Nearly three quarters of the senior professionals we surveyed opted in to be contacted about commercial opportunities. That is a warm, qualified list, built through a rugby club. Every region of Wales could build one.

The diaspora is honest about what would bring them back, too: a stronger economy, better public services and better connections. Poor air links and slow journeys between North and South came up again and again, along with frustration at what many see as a lack of ambition. Any pitch for North or Mid Wales has to deal with both.

Heading in the right direction

The good news is that politics is moving in the right direction. Plaid Cymru's manifesto proposed a comprehensive Diaspora Strategy, treating the three to four million Welsh people abroad as an asset for skills, creativity and investment. Now in government, it wants to halve Wales's productivity gap with the rest of the UK within ten years, and it is setting up a new international development agency to attract investment and help Welsh businesses grow. It has been clear that it wants investment that deepens local supply chains and keeps more value in Wales. That is exactly what diaspora business owners bring.

Westminster has reached the same conclusion. In May, the Welsh Affairs Committee said Wales is missing out by failing to harness its diaspora. It called on the Wales Office to lead an investment-focused diaspora strategy, including for rural and disadvantaged communities. UK ministers have since described the diaspora as a powerful resource and put extra money into the Brand Wales programme.

There is a warning in the evidence, though. New York Welsh told the Senedd this year that everything it had achieved over six years came without Welsh Government support. One Senedd member described emails from diaspora members wanting to invest simply going unanswered. That goodwill is real, but it won't survive another ten years of being ignored.

What needs to happen next

First, build the diaspora into the new development agency from day one. The agency doesn't need to start from scratch. A global network of Welsh professionals, business owners and investors already exists, built up by GlobalWelsh over many years, along with the research to understand what they want. Working with that network rather than duplicating it, and giving investors one named contact from the first conversation right through to aftercare, would tackle the biggest barrier our research found: simply not knowing where to start.

Second, give every growth deal its own diaspora pipeline. Each region should map its diaspora the way we have done nationally and in Gwent: by sector, by business ownership and by explicit consent to be contacted. North and Mid Wales should go first, because that is where appetite is highest and delivery is weakest.

Third, start with the people who have already put their hands up. More than a hundred diaspora business owners have told us they want stronger links with Wales. Picking up the phone to them will achieve more in a year than any glossy global campaign.

Fourth, give people a proper way to invest. At the moment, diaspora investment happens almost entirely through personal connections. Curated opportunities, co-investment alongside Welsh funds and regional investor networks would open it up to far more people.

Fifth, tell a better story about the regions. A credible offer for North or Mid Wales needs to address transport and opportunity together, and it is far more convincing coming from people who have already gone back and made it work.

And finally, measure it. If the UK Government won't produce a Wales-specific investment report, the Welsh Government and its new agency should track diaspora leads and investment themselves, so we know what is working.

The call Wales hasn't made

We spend a great deal of time and money trying to persuade investors who have never heard of Wales. Meanwhile, hundreds of business owners who grew up here, who are still proud to be Welsh and who have told us they want to invest, are waiting for someone to get in touch.

The new government has the mission, the committee has made the recommendation, and GlobalWelsh has the research and the network. The next step is simply to make the call.

^Sources:

• ^{Wales the only part of the UK to attract more foreign investment in 2025-26 – Wrexham.com}
• ^{UK foreign investment hits decade low – Swansea Bay News}
• ^{Wales attracts £4.6bn of global inward investment – GOV.WALES}
• ^{Promoting Wales for Inward Investment – Welsh Affairs Committee}
• ^{MPs call for new promotion agency – UK Parliament}
• ^{UK Government rejects call for annual report on investment in Wales – Nation.Cymru}
• ^{Senedd Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee, 14 January 2026}
• ^{Sub-regional productivity 2002 to 2023 – GOV.WALES}
• ^{Sub-regional productivity 2002 to 2021 – GOV.WALES}
• ^{CCR passes UK Gateway Review – Cardiff Capital Region}
• ^{Swansea Bay city deal 'well on its way' – Herald.Wales}