LG site to be £200m data centre

New Generation Data says it's in talks with "blue chip" companies

A £200m deal has been secured to bring a state-of-the-art data centre to Newport, providing computer services to businesses and creating 100 jobs.

New Generation Data Ltd has chosen the former LG semiconductor site to house the centre, which will be one of the largest and advanced in Europe.

The First Minister Rhodri Morgan described the investment as "critical" for economic growth.

The semi-conductor plant has been empty since it was completed in 1998.

Its sister plant, LG Electronics, closed in 2006 with the company blaming falling prices and rising costs of producing computer monitors

The development was intended to be the largest inward investment in Wales, creating more than 6,000 jobs when it was announced by the Korean company in 1996.

A total of £131m was paid by Welsh public bodies but the projects were never completed and less than half the jobs materialised.

Eventually £71m of this money was recovered but the public bodies were heavily criticised by the Welsh assembly's finance watchdog.

Data Centres are the motorways of the 21st century Rhodri Morgan, First Minister

The site was passed to the former Welsh Development Agency, and then the assembly government.

Trumpeting the new deal, the Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones described it as a critically important addition to the telecoms and information technology infrastructure in Wales.

"A data-centre of this size and capacity will not only support Welsh businesses to remain competitive in a global economy but also has the capacity to act as a catalyst in attracting new business," said the minister.

"The new centre will be of particular interest to our growing financial services sector, offering business continuity while also providing our SMEs with cost effective access to high quality, robust and secure data-centre services."

21st century

The data centre will house the electronic hardware and communication links needed to run websites and e-commerce businesses in a highly-secure environment.

New Generation Data says it is also in negotiations with several blue-chip companies to lease areas within the new site to run their own equipment and businesses independently.

Chief executive Nick Razey said he hoped the plant would be operational by the end of the year.

"The site is perfectly situated for the requirements of a data centre," he said.

"It is designed for semi-conductor use so a lot of the requirements are similar to data centre use. It also has a sub station within 1km. Data centres are notoriously large consumers of power so to have that capability is pretty unique in the market.

"We have been working very closely with International Business Wales whose job it is to bring extra investment into the region and they have a number of interested parties who would like to invest in Wales and have asked, do you have a data centre available?

"Now the answer will be yes."

Welcoming the development, first minister Rhodri Morgan added: "Data Centres are the motorways of the 21st century. They encourage economic development in the same way that motorways did in the 20th century and the railways in the 19th century.

"They are an absolutely critical tool for economic growth, and that's why I am so pleased that we have secured this development."