PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Over the past few weeks, I have written a number of articles on the importance of developing a more competitive economy within Wales and the crucial role of universities in achieving this, especially through the supply of skilled graduates for knowledge-based firms. Having recently discussed this with various businesspeople, most agreed with me, but they also remain disappointed, and somewhat perplexed, at the current dispute between academic staff and their employers, the universities. For those of you not too sure what has been going on, the unions representing lecturers across higher education claim that academic pay has fallen in real terms over the past 20 years. As a result, these unions want a 23% increase in pay over the next three years which would enable staff to close the gap with other professionals and then to keep up with the rise in public sector earnings. However, to date, the employers are offering 12.6% over the same period, which has been refused by the two unions - ...

Went to the Gwynedd Business Awards last week in my role as chairman of Outlook Expeditions Ltd. Matt Wells - the Operations MD - and I were late and we were up against Watkin Jones for the Investors in People Award. The omens were not too good then!!! Well, surprise surprise, we won!! and Mark Watkin Jones was very gracious afterwards and generous with the beer. Needless to say, we celebrated until the early hours!! Pictured above are Matt and myself receiving the award from Careers Wales, the sponsors. Given the amount of training undertaken by our staff, who are the best in North Wales, the award is a testament to everyone at Outlook who have worked to make us the second largest specialist expeditions company in the UK.

A report to be released by the Centre for Economics and Business Research tomorrow will show that public sector expenditure in Wales, as a proportion of GDP, has grown from 56.3% in 2002 to 62.4% in 2006. Highlighted in the Sunday Times , the study indicates that Wales spends two times as much on public spending as a proportion of its economy than new members of the EU such as the Czech Republic and Poland. Some have argued that this is because there is a weaker private sector in Wales as compared to regions such as London. However, given that £4 billion is being spent on procuring goods and services by the Welsh public sector and only 30 per cent of this goes to local firms, then surely there needs to be serious examination of how this procurement can be legally adjusted to benefit Welsh business and to help them build capacity for future contracts. Only in this respect can increased public sector funding be used to increase the prosperity of this nation. Only last week, I was speakin...

In this month’s edition of the Institute of Welsh Affairs magazine “Agenda”, the eminent scientist and industrialist, Professor Sir John Cadogan , gives a highly critical and timely view of the state of science in Wales. In a submission supported by twelve other fellows of the Royal Society, he describes the current thinking of the Assembly Government as “disturbing and ominous for anyone who really cares about the role of Science and Technology in creating wealth”. In particular, he points out that we still do not have the correct science base for Wales, with one university across the border – Bristol University – having a higher number of departments with the highest rating for science, medical and engineering than the whole of Welsh academia. In calling for more Assembly funding for the development of a strong science infrastructure within universities, especially as the gap in funding between Wales and England is getting wider, he may have touched a raw nerve, especially as there i...

The budget for economic development within the National Assembly (and the grants that follow) pales into insignificance when compared to the £4 billion (or 11 per cent of GDP) that the public sector spends annually on purchasing goods and services in Wales. As in the case of giving grants to large foreign investors, our civil servants and public agency executives seem to be more impressed with suits from over the border than in the abilities and capabilities of Welsh firms. As a result, we are losing out on a crucial opportunity to use public funding to build up high value added businesses and industries within Wales. Only 30 per cent of the goods and services procured by the Welsh public sector goes to local firms. Imagine if we could increase that to 50 per cent – that would mean that at least £800 million of additional funding per annum would go into the Welsh private sector, dwarfing the £30 million given in RSA and AIG grants to Welsh firms last year. The public sector will no dou...

Every month, the Assembly’s Statistics Directorate issues a ‘ key economic statistics bulletin’ , which describes how the Welsh economy is faring across a range of difference factors and allows us to examine, in particular, its performance during the last twelve months. The latest data shows that, in terms of employment, the seasonally adjusted estimate of the total number in employment in Wales was 1.322 million in February 2006. This accounted for a fall in employment of 12,000 (0.9%) from a year earlier. Overall, there has been very little change over the last year in terms of the employment rate, and it seems unlikely that we will see any further major increases in net employment during the next twelve months. The number of working age adults in employment in the UK has increased at a time when the employment rate in Wales has gone down to 71.3% from 72.3% in the corresponding period a year earlier. Perhaps the statistic which remains the most worrying is the number of economically...

Off to Rome today for four days to celebrate my better half's 40th birthday. I am sure everything will have calmed down after the recent nail-biting election, which Romano Prodi won by less than 25,000 votes. One of the key battlegrounds was that of the economy, as it will be in the next elections here in the UK. The Italian economy had only grown by an average of less than 1 per cent since Silvio Berlusconi took office in 2001, and did not grow at all in 2005. The problems are familiar - competition from East Asian exporters are affecting the comptitvness of Italian manufacturers; there is high unemployment amongst the young; household debt is increasing and Italy's budget deficit continues to be in breach of EU rules. As opposed to Berlusconi's tax cutting agenda and focus on improving the fortunes of the poor South (which qualifies for Objective 1 funding), Prodi aims to boost jobs by cutting labour costs, develop new programmes to boost competitiveness and to streamline...

In Wales, the role of universities in delivering the skills that knowledge industries require cannot be underestimated. For example, HEFCW indicate that in 2006-2007, the thirteen higher education institutions in Wales (excluding the Open University) will receive over £338 million from the Assembly for research and teaching, an increase of 2.7 per cent on 2005. Of this sum, just over £5 Million is spent on postgraduate research training in Wales, i.e. in developing graduates with more specialised skills required by knowledge-based industries. Indeed, Wales accounts for just under 5 per cent of the number of postgraduates within the UK – roughly what would be expected for our population. In contrast, Scotland, according to the Royal Society, does proportionally better in attracting proportionally more students to research degrees in key subjects such as medical sciences, biological sciences, and physical sciences. Whilst Welsh universities will hopefully lobby for greater funding towa...

Whilst some of you are no doubt recovering from a very good Friday night out, others will be out there dipping their toes into the ocean of business opportunity. Whilst many consider entrepreneurship to be a decision many people make when they are looking to move away from their current employment, statistics from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor show that the majority of people start their own business whilst still working for someone else. Here is a slideshow example of such weekend businesses, as discussed in Entrepreneur Magazine.

Fantastic news from West Wales today, where three students from Neath Port Talbot College have recahed the final of the national competition " Edge to Space ". If Wales is going to be a leading knowledge-based region, then there is a real need to generate greater interest within science subjects within Welsh schools and colleges. The success of these students is a real boost and shows that we have talented young people within Wales who want to make a difference in the world of science if only they can be encouraged further.

More bad news for the manufacturing industry in Wales today when it was announced that Krupp Camford Pressings in Llanelli would be considering whether to move their operation elsewhere, with the potential loss of 160 staff. This followed the news yesterday that 200 jobs were being lost at the Grampian Country Food Group in Anglesey . The reaction from the Assembly Government has been similar to other closures i.e. that other jobs will be found for the workers affected using 'team Wales'. However, it is unlikely that they will obtain jobs in the same industry and Wales will lose even more well-paid jobs in this sector. Perhaps policy-makers should consider examining the case study of Ericcson Microwave Systems , which created and implemented a "competence shift process" which aimed to reduce the total headcount of the division by almost 25%, without using traditional large-scale lay-off methods. This highlights how a company's restructuring can be successfully ma...

A very significant report on graduate debt and entrepreneurship has been published today from the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship. The report's findings are good news for the UK's enterprise economy but send a clear message to those involved in encouraging students to consider self-employment to nurture the obvious entrepreneurial zest and flair demonstrated in the first year of education right through to the final year and beyond. This means recognising, encouraging and rewarding students and graduates whose fledgling enterprises could be a success and a future inspiration. It shows that the number of students anticipating setting up on their own immediately after graduation remains constant regardless of debt levels (i.e. four per cent of all students questioned want to start up their own business immediately after graduation) and this figure remains the same regardless of whether those students have no, small or large debts. Assuming the same regional respons...

Given that this website is a blog, all of you reading this are familiar should be familiar with the art of blogging. Certainly, one of my daily delights is reading the hilarious blog of one of the Western Mail's esteemed senior journalists , which runs the gamut from the content of his lunchbox and walk to work, to some irreverent pastiches of the great and good in the Welsh business world. If you miss his blog over the next week, this is because congratulations are in order on his elevation to fatherhood over the weekend - congratulations Sion! The growth of blogging started in 1999, when software tools were developed to make their creation easier. Since then the number of ‘blogs’ has expanded from a few thousand to an estimated 50 million across the world today.As you all know, a 'blog' (or web log) is defined as "web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically". However, it differs considerably from a standard web p...

Many of us with an interest in economics will be sad at the passing of J.K. Galbraith last week. The American economist - who managed to bring a sense of reality to the subject area - was a man who wrote some of the most insightful commentaries on the American business arena. In particular, his wish to be remembered as a writer rather than as an economist is something that many of us with our feet in both camps would sympathise with! As an entrepreneurship academic, I read his book " The New Industrial State " with some interest, given that he was of the opinion that larger firms were the only ones with the requisite capital and resources to make any difference in the knowledge economy. This seemed to support Schumpeter's idea from "Capitalism Socialism and Democracy" that entrepreneurship would eventually lead to the marxist ideal of only one large multinational organisation controlling the world. However, both Galbraith and Schumpeter, if looking back at the l...