GWENT's importance as a leading Welsh conference venue will be underlined next month when almost 300 delegates thrash out ways of making the country's economy more competitive.

Business people, academics and politicians will be gathering at the Celtic Manor Resort on April 3, for a conference organised by the Welsh Development Agency and the University of Glamorgan.

BBC newsreader Huw Edwards will open the Future Competitiveness in Wales event, where speakers will in-clude Professor Michael Porter, a leading international authority on regional competitiveness, who will take part by live satellite link from the Harvard Bus-iness School in Boston.

Also addressing delegates will be Professor Michael Quayle, director of the University of Glamor-gan's Business School.

He said: "This conference will pool the best expertise on competitiveness both from Wales and internationally.

"The combination of Prof Porter's expertise in regional competitiveness and the knowledge and experience of Welsh contributors means that we have a real opportunity to exchange ideas and strategies to give Wales a ken, competitive edge by the end of the decade."

The conference will be chaired by WDA chairman Roger Jones, founder and former head of Gwent firm Penn Pharmaceuticals.

WDA director of innovation and technology Dr Virginia Chambers said: "We want the event to provide a platform for the start of a discussion about how Wales is going to compete more effectively in future with a focus on the role of innovation, entrepreneurship and changing technologies.

"The audience will be a cross- section of people with a direct involvement in influencing our future competitiveness from senior company executives to entrepreneurs and innovators and from leading academics to public sector organisations which deliver business support services.

"We hope to draw from their different perspectives a clearer idea of what the essential issues are - and of the key actions that we need to undertake in Wales to build a competitive economy.

The all-day programme at the conference will begin with an overview of the challenges for Wales highlighted in the National Assembly's Winning Wales economic strategy. Later, delegates will be able to join in a question time session with Prof Porter, to be followed by series of four separate workshop sessions covering technological change, creating and growing businesses, education and training and the 'knowledge' economy. For information about attendance, contact Maria Buckley at the WDA on 029 20828848.

In the last month, the Celtic Manor has been host to ICT02, Wales' biggest exhibition and conference devoted to information and communication technology. It was also the venue for the People in Business awards ceremony organised by the National Council for Education and Learning for Wales (ELWa), at which companies were rewarded for investing in staff training and development.