The First Minister's visit to New York 1-4 March 2002 (Saesneg yn unig)

Members will be aware that I recently undertook a visit to New York.

After marking St David’s Day in Cardiff with the launch of the new Assembly Government logo I travelled to New York where I undertook a number of engagements to promote Wales to American and Welsh-American audiences.

On the evening of arrival, still during St David’s Day (US Eastern Time) I was guest of honour at a dinner of the St David’s Society of New York founded circa 1804 where I met a large number of people with Welsh connections or Welsh descent.  Bryn Terfel was on hand as well to receive an award for an outstanding contribution to Wales’ profile overseas.  The setting up of the Assembly means a huge amount to Welsh Americans as to Welsh exiles everywhere.

Although the visit was only for three days the programme was packed with events to raise awareness of Wales as a wonderful place to visit and invest in.  Welsh Americans often are employed in key positions in the huge financial services sector in New York.  Two significant events that helped with this were the Wales v Italy Six Nations game which was beamed in live by satellite at the Harvard Club and which was watched by over 150 people at a breakfast followed by a briefing on the Ryder Cup in 2010 for the US media and golf writers.

The Ryder Cup briefing, hosted by Philip Evans, Chair of the Tourist Board was also well attended and I did the Q&A jointly with Terry Matthews and Richard Hill of the PGA.

A literary event, probably best described as a soirée, was also staged celebrating the life of Dylan Thomas at the legendary Chelsea Hotel where he always stayed during his visits to New York.  It included performances of some of his best-loved work by a cast of Welsh performers including Welsh soprano Shân Cothi, Bob Kingdom as Dylan Thomas himself, Ralph McTell reading one of Dylan’s poems and Iris Williams also participated, as did I and Steve Evans, BBC North American correspondent.  The event was packed out and attended by some of the leading figures and journalists on the New York arts scene.

On Sunday 3 March I visited Ground Zero to see the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11th.  It was a privilege, almost an intrusion into family grief to see some of the personal but very sad messages and photographs pinned up on boards from the next of kin of those who lost their lives but where funerals cannot take place.  I also laid a wreath on behalf of the people of Wales in memory of not only those people from Wales but for everyone who died as a result of the terrorist attack.

I then visited one of the nearby New York fire stations which responded to the emergency situation on September 11, and which had lost 14 out of 16 firemen on duty on that shift.  I presented them with a book of remembrance on behalf of the Mid and West Wales fire service.

These visits were amongst the most moving and emotional I have ever taken part in.

On Sunday after attending a lunch with the Wales Tourist Board attended by a large group of American travel writers, I hosted a reception at Carnegie Hall after the recital by Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel.

The concert was virtually sold out and the audience response to the maestro at work was wonderful to watch, both as regards the Lieder recital and the three encores in which Bryn started to relax and really enjoy himself, referring to the Welsh take over of the Metropolitan Opera (the Met) with five Welsh soloists starring there during this month, one of whom was Gwyn Hughes-Jones who came up from the audience, responding to a sheep farmers’ son’s whistle, to perform The Pearl Fishers tenor/baritone duet, which brought the house down and the Welsh flags out on the balcony.

On Monday 4 March, the final day I attended a business breakfast, hosted by the Consul-General in New York, Sir Tom Harris.  The breakfast was attended by a number of leading political figures from New York to exchange views on a wide variety of domestic and foreign policy issues.

Following that I attended a lunch, hosted by Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman of The Sony Corporation, USA, Don Keogh, President of Coca Cola, Dr Henry Kissinger and a number of other leading industrialists and journalists.  Whilst we discussed a wide range of issues the main focus of the lunch was to discuss “Wales in the World” and explore how a little country can get big exposure in an unbelievably competitive market.

The whole visit was designed to promote Wales to as wide an audience in New York as possible and provided some superb opportunities to show off the very best of Wales throughout the weekend and to prepare for the opening of the First multi-agency multi-purpose Wales International Centres in New York, which we hope to do in September.