09/05/2014 BBC Wales Today

Good evening. Manufacturing in Wales can be rebuilt - despite years of

decline. The former boss of Japanese electronics giant Sony, Sir Howard

Stringer, has told BBC Wales, companies can win back business

that's been lost to Asia. It comes as new figures show the economy is

close to being as strong as it was before the recession hit, with

manufacturing going from strength to strength.

Here's our business correspondent, Brian Meechan.

Manufacture ing has always played a significant part in the Welsh

economy and that continues to be the case today. Much of it has moved to

Asia, though, where wages are much lower, making production costs

cheaper. Some manufacturing work is returning, Sony is now making this,

a basic credit-card size computer for children. There is a lesson in

that for other manufacturers. The way to bring manufacturing back to

Wales is to find a way to make it worthwhile for the Japanese company

and one of it is the distance to the customer. It is very long from

China. Everything moves so fast. In the ten weeks it takes a ship to get

to the UK, your market will have changed. If you do your

manufacturing in Wales, at reasonable costs, you have a

tremendous advantage on your competition in getting to the market

so quickly. But the employment figures are startling. In the 2001

Census just over 200,000 people were working in manufacturing. Ten years

later, that number was 144,000. That is a 30% rediction. Over the last

two years, Sony has transformed how it manufactures its cameras. Gone

are the old production lines where people work on specific components

and now one operator creates one kit and that means people like Claire

take 90 minutes to put something like this together. Sony has also

moved production of these smaller cameras from Asia to Wales. It's

innovations like this that brings that extra work in. Innovation and

quality will be our two real drivers of everything we do. We would always

be trying to innovate and change processes to make them more

efficient, higher quality, faster through-put time. That is our goal.

Manufacture ing may never return to Wales on the scale that it left.

Rising costs in Asia and long shipping times mean there are

opportunities for Welsh firms to compete for business.

And you can hear the full interview with Sir Howard Stringer on Wales at

Work, at 7.00am tomorrow morning on BBC Radio Wales.

A man and a woman have been taken to hospital after a fire at a ground

floor flat near Pontypridd. Emergency services were called to

the flat in New Road in Ynysybwl at around 8.30pm this evening. Fire and

ambulance crews, and the police, are still at the scene.

There are calls for more of us to report offensive material on social

media to the police. It comes a day after a man from Port Talbot was

jailed for posting offensive messages on Twitter, following the

stabbing of teacher Ann Maguire in Leeds. Online safety experts say we

shouldn't leave it to others to take on the so-called "internet trolls".

Joy Lamb is more cautious online than she used to be. It is

two-and-a-half years since her granddaughter was killed by a train

at this station in Liverpool on a night out with friends. The family's

distress was deepened when her father discovered a Facebook tribute

page set up by school mates had been targeted by trolls posting offensive

pictures about the teenager. He first said to me, "Don't look at it

because it will upset you." I did and it did upset me. I felt that

that was the reaction that the trolls wanted. So, we totally

ignored the whole thing in the end and we didn't give them the time of

day because that is the reaction. Their claim to fame. Increasingly,

police aren't ignoring them. Yesterday, this man was jailed for

eight weeks for remarks on Twitter about the stabbing of Ann Maguire.

This man runs an organisation which calls itself the Social Media

Police. The key sites such as Twitter and Facebook are doing a lot

of work within schools, in trying to educate people about how to use

social media responsibly and take steps. Legislation will tie up

police time. So through people and parent engagement and community

engagement, it is a more effective way to resolve trolling long-term.

Earlier this year, ChildLine reported that it had seen an 87%

increase in contacts from victims of online bullying, one of the main

problems was racist bullying where there had been a 69% increase. With

most of us having access to smartphones or tablets, it's never

been easier to post things online. ChildLine say the 24-hour nature of

online bullying or trolling means there is no escape for victims and

that can sometimes lead to feelings of low self-esteem and self-harming

or suicide. Joy and her family had hoped the internet would be a place

where they could share their happiest memories of Georgia. The

trolls have only added to their heartbreak.

It's emerged that a man suspected of abuse in the north Wales care system

has been found dead. Kenneth Wheatley, who was 62, was being

questioned by the National Crime Agency about historical claims of

abuse. He was found dead on a railway line, three days after he

was arrested and bailed by Suffolk Police on suspicion of the indecent

assault of a boy near Ipswich in 1976.

The UK's oldest coal-fired power station near Newport is to close,

putting 83 jobs at risk. The owners of Uskmouth power station, Scottish

and Southern Energy, say they've been unable to find a buyer for the

site. They say they're exploring redeployment options within the

With the European elections less than a fortnight away, former Plaid

Cymru leader Lord Wigley has attacked the three main UK parties

for allowing UKIP to steer the agenda. He's lent his weight to

Plaid's campaign for the European elections. The party hopes to keep

its only seat in the European Parliament. In a speech in Merthyr

Tydfil tonight, Lord Wigley warned that leaving the EU would be

Plaid Cymru's vote will hold up. What we are afraid of is not losing

our seat, but UKIP gathering a momentum that drives us to a

position where Wales finds itself being taken out on the coat tails of

London and that is not acceptable. The former Cardiff City boss Malky

Mackay has apologised "without reservation" to club owner Vincent

Tan, over the issues that led to his sacking in December. The 42-year-old

Scot has also halted his legal action against the club, after

agreeing a settlement. The club's former head of recruitment Iain

Moody issued a similar statement. Rugby and Warren Gatland is already

without Sam Warburton and Leigh Halfpenny for Wales' summer tour.

Today, news that Justin Tipuric won't make the plane to South

Africa. The Ospreys flanker will undergo

surgery on his shoulder next week Well, I'm afraid we're in for a bit

of a wet weekend. It's not looking great, is it,

Derek? It isn't. We are in for a taste of

autumn. Low pressure bringing more rain and heavy showers. Strong to

gale force winds as well. I can promise you at least a little

sunshine. Tonight, rain will spill across the whole country, some heavy

rain and hill fog. The winds picking up again as well, with lowest

temperatures 7-11 Celsius. The reason for this disturbed spell of

weather is low pressure, which will track across the UK over the

weekend. So, rain first thing tomorrow will clear away. It will

dry and brighten up. Some sunshine for a time, but showers will follow.

Across the rest of the UK, rain will continue to move north and east.

Clearing away into the North Sea, but the rain will linger and become

slow-moving across Scotland. Elsewhere, the sun will come out,

but with heavy blustery showers, a risk of thunder and a warning of

strong to gale force winds in the south-west. It is a case of dodging

the showers in Wales tomorrow afternoon. Some of them will be

heavy with thunder. Dry intervals in between. And watch out for strong to

gale force winds on the Bristol Channel coast and in Pembrokeshire.

Tomorrow night will continue windy. Quite wet for some of us as well

with further rain and blustery showers. Sunday will be cool and

windy. The wettest weather is likely on the mountains. Elsewhere, some

places becoming dry in the afternoon and brightening up with sunny

intervals. The winds slowly easing, so the bluebells are in for a

watering this weekend. Some strong winds as well. Next week, the winds

will ease with sunshine and showers. Later in the week, signs of high

pressure heading our way. That's Wales Today. We're back

tomorrow at 6.10am. From all of us on the programme,

good night.