uch of the U.K.'s investment activity in 2007 will have come from Wales, if activity so far this year keeps pace. From bioscience to state- of- the- art IT services, Wales is staking claim to some key projects, not the least of which is Amazon.co.uk's new fulfillment center in Swansea. One of the largest projects in Wales in recent years, this 800,000- sq.- ft. (74,320- sq.- m.) operation will create up to 1,200 jobs, with hundreds more expected around the holidays.
   "This new development will play an integral part in fulfilling current and future demand, and we feel that the site's great location, coupled with the ability to draw from a pool of strong local talent, will make this an extremely successful operation," noted Allan Lyall, Amazon's vice president of European operations, at the announcement of the project on April 2nd. This will be the fourth Amazon operation in the U.K.; others are in Gourock and Glenrothes, Scotland, and Milton Keynes, in England.
   Swansea, on Wales' southern coast, is linked to London and southern England via the M4 motorway and is just west of Cardiff, the Welsh capital and largest city. In early 2007, Atlanta- based "electronic- discovery" and litigation- technology firm eMag Solutions opened its European headquarters in Cardiff to service clients in the U.K. and on the Continent. The company already had operations in Brynmawr and Abertillery, Wales.
   "We must have fast access to the major legal and financial markets in London as well as access to a highly skilled and technical work force where employment loyalty is prevalent," says Brendan Sullivan, eMag's president and CEO. "We feel Cardiff can offer us the right blend, and look forward to continued expansion here."
   Also in the south, GE Healthcare is opening a global center of excellence for small- scale chemical and biochemical manufacturing in Cardiff. The facility will take over production of disposable purification columns used in protein and DNA research from an operation in Uppsala, Sweden. And Valtech, a global software development consultancy, is opening a development center in southern Wales that will employ 160 people.
   "We chose Wales because it is a mature business environment that can provide a skilled work force with software development expertise," says Jonathon Poole, Valtech's CEO. "We have been particularly impressed with the high academic standards in computing research and teaching at Welsh universities and the relevance of areas of their work to our own needs, in such disciplines as Agile software development."
   Northern Wales, too, is seeing investment, particularly in the bioscience sector. Phytovation Ltd., for example, recently opened an operation at the Cibyn Industrial Estate in Caernarfon, in northwestern Wales, where it will produce high- quality plant extracts for the pharmaceutical and other industries.
   Sharp Electronics is doubling the size of its photovoltaic solar- panel plant in Wrexham, in the northeast, which opened in 2004. The US$18- million expansion will double production capacity to 220MW, making it one of the largest PV solar module plants in the world.
   "The fact that we are willing to invest further in Wales is testimony to the quality and skills of the local work force," said Denise Marsden, general manager of the Sharp site. "As the search for greater renewable energy resources continues, the expansion will give us the capacity to meet the increasing needs of the market."    London won't be replaced as the United Kingdom's preeminent financial center any time soon, but other metros in the island nation are competing vigorously for the leftovers. And those leftovers are no small win. Banks, broker- dealers and other players require an array of behind- the- scenes functions to make the front- office staff effective. These include data processing, transaction processing, disaster prevention and recovery, inbound and outbound call centers for customer service and marketing, shared- services centers, consultants and ICT providers, to name just a few.
   Real estate, labor and other costs related to financial industry support functions are as high as London's emerging skyline relative to other metro areas in the U.K., all of which are easily accessible to the nation's capital. Established players in this market already include Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland and Manchester, Leeds and Bournemouth in England, among others.
   One in four jobs in Leeds and 31 percent of the city's economic output were associated with the financial and business- services sectors in 2006. Government figures for 2005 showed a work force of 109,000 in those sectors. "Employment growth and prosperity in Leeds has been fueled by the growth in financial and business services," says Paul Stephens, chief economic services officer for the Leeds City Council. "The sector has a vital role to play in the city's continued success.
   Of all the non- London players vying for such investment, Manchester perhaps has an edge, with its international airport, National Financial Services Academy (one of three in the U.K. at present – the others are in London and Norwich, and others will open in the future; for more on these, visit www.fssc.org.uk), and student population of more than 100,000 students. But they cannot take that for granted, with Leeds and other metros coming on so strong.
   "We've been working very hard over the last several years to reposition the city in the global marketplace," says Sir Howard Bernstein, chief executive of the Manchester City Council. "The city possesses availability of skills, connectivity to international markets – a range of opportunities in terms of scale and diversity of commercial product."
   When the Bank of New York chose Manchester in 2005 as the location of a securities service center employing up to 700 (see "World Reports," January 2006), the city fathers were understandably elated to add to a financial services employment base of some 200,000 workers. But Manchester might not suit every financial player, particularly those seeking labor costs on a par with those of, say, India.
   "Financial institutions are all at different places in terms of their global strategies," says Bernstein. "The offer that Manchester can make will suit some, but not all, international financial institutions over the next few years. As we continue to build up our own critical mass of activity and services, we will then become a very powerful proposition for everybody."