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Part of £1.1billion of a new raft of European funding will help pay for improvements to the A55.

Finance and Government Business Minister Jane Hutt announced the European Commission’s approval of the new £1.1bn European Regional Development Fund programmes to help boost the Welsh economy and create jobs in Wales over the next six years.

It includes £252m for transport that will fund improvements to the A55 and the A40 and towards the Metro in the Cardiff Capital City Region.

There is £310m for Research and Innovation; £198m to boost competitiveness, including through business finance; £439m for Connectivity and Urban Development, (which includes the transport budget) and £154m for renewable energy and energy efficiency.

A vast majority of the money (£960m) will go to West Wales and the Valleys, which includes Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Ceredigion. A further £162m will support projects in East Wales, which includes Flintshire, Wrexham and Powys.

The Minister, speaking at the Glasdir centre in Llanrwst this morning, said: “This is a huge opportunity.

"This will be more focused and strategic (than the previous EDRF funding) and it has to be a game changer.

"It is about making an even bigger impact and we will see more concentrated and more focused projects.

"It has to be the public and private sector working together to deliver the maximum impact.

“There is great hope and strong ambitions. It can help the areas targeted catch up, we know we have to increase productivity and wage levels and you can only do that by building skills, getting the right businesses and backing communities and people.”

EU projects supported through the 2007–2013 programmes created over 30,100 (gross) jobs and over 10,400 enterprises across Wales. One of those was the Bee and Station business centre in Rhyl which was developed with £500,000 from the European Regional Development Fund.

The EU funds enabled the derelict hotel to be transformed into a hub for enterprising ventures.

Currently, based at the centre is community interest company, G2G.Set up by Bill and Moira Lockitt in March 2010, the company employs some 12 staff as well as a number of volunteers.

It is helping people into work or to start their own business; it is also supporting businesses to drive innovation within their existing activities to increase their growth prospects.

They use many multi-media resources as part of their innovative training techniques to encourage people to study science, technology, engineering and maths.