PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Last week, the Chilcot inquiry began into Britain’s role in the Second Iraq War which began in 2003. Like many in the UK during the months leading up to the decision to go to war, I was not convinced by the flimsy arguments put forward by the British Government as a pretext to committing our troops to war in Iraq. Indeed, I remember having quite heated debates with friends and colleagues who thought that Saddam Hussein should be removed whatever the cost. Unfortunately, too many of our MPs were also ready to follow this line at the time, ignore the evidence before their eyes and support Tony Blair’s suggestion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction ready for deployment within forty five minutes. Why did Tony Blair cling to this line of argument for going to war with Iraq? Well, it would seem that his own Solicitor General, the UK’s top law officer, had informed him that there were only two legitimate and legal reasons for going to war , namely "humanitarian intervention" a...

While only one-fifth of the population of Wales are Welsh speakers, previous studies have indicated that they may have different economic characteristics from other language groups. For example, research by various economists has shown that Welsh speakers have been found to have a lower unemployment rate, are less likely to be economically inactive and, most importantly, have an earnings advantage in Wales. However, what about the impact of the Welsh language on entrepreneurial activity? During the past 20 years, Wales has seen a proliferation in Welsh language businesses. For example, there are an increasing number of Welsh language bookshops independently owned by Welsh entrepreneurs. In addition, the growing demand for Welsh literature has led to a number of Welsh publishing houses – such as Gwasg Gomer, y Lolfa, and Gwasg Gwynedd – and the development of a number of Welsh language magazine publications such as Golwg. There has also been a particular revival in the production of chi...

Should we be worried when a candidate for the job of First Minister shows a distinct lack of knowledge of the state of the economy? Judge for yourself from the interview today with Edwina Hart in the Western Mail where she made the following statement in response to a question on the future of the Welsh economy: “The key story of the Welsh economy, until the recession, was of its success. The UK economy grew at a faster rate than other industrialised nations; the Welsh economy grew faster than the UK economy and, within Wales, the economy of West Wales and the Valleys grew faster than Wales as a whole". This sound s like great news until, of course, you examine the veracity of each of these statements in relation to the time period since Labour came to power in 1997. The UK economy grew at a faster rate than other industrialised nations INCORRECT - During the period 1997-2007, Ireland registered the greatest increase in real GDP per capita , followed by the Republic of Korea, Ho...

It always brings a wry smile to my face when I hear that various Plaid Cymru backbenchers, whenever a WAG policy announcement has been made, have claimed that this or that brand new initiative is down to their interventions within cabinet. Obviously the most recent example concerns ProAct , which the Deputy First Minister and his colleagues are forever claiming as their idea, even though it was developed within DCELLS , Jane Hutt's department. However, after observing today's shenanigans in the Chamber, it is clear that when it comes to the referendum on devolution, it is Plaid Cymru that is leading the argument within the coalition government. In an example of backpeddling that, if it was an Olympic event, would make Rhodri Morgan a gold medal winner, all that had to happen for him to go into full reverse on an earlier Labour Party policy decision was for a couple of Plaid backbenchers to stand up and say that, as Labour would not promise a referendum before the next Gen...

Perhaps what many have failed to notice in general excitement of the YouGov/ITV Wales poll on a referendum for the Assembly are the voting preferences of those sampled for the next general election. Unless I am totally mistaken, it looks like the Conservatives are running only a few percentage points behind the Labour Party in Wales. Compare this to the situation in 2005 when the voting intentions were 43% Labour verses 21% Conservative. This reinforces the October poll results from YouGov and seems to suggest that the Conservatives will continue their resurgence in Wales and, given the concentration of Labour's votes in areas such as the South Wales Valleys, may spring a few surprises in some unexpected constituencies.

When you are lucky enough to get the position to meet your heroes, there is always an inevitable sense of disappointment. Actors are boring and self-obsessed, sport stars are always smaller in real life, and politicians are, well, politicians. Today, I was lucky to meet one of my real academic heroes and the man who created, single handedly, much of the entrepreneurship infrastructure that makes MIT the innovation hotspot that it has become today. Even at the grand old age of 74, Professor Ed Roberts is a giant amongst academics and one of my personal heroes. It was the work that Ed did in the 1960s and 1970s which laid the foundation for much of the knowledge we have today on technology-based companies and his research was the inspiration for my own Ph.D on technical entrepreneurship in the UK. His talk today about the effect of MIT on the US economy was a tour de force and even in his 70s, he has the power to inspire and, most importantly, surprise us. For example, his recent review...

It is somewhat ironic that I am sitting here having lunch in the middle of the world class ecosystem that is MIT when my academic colleague Rob Huggins is preparing to give his inaugural lecture at UWIC , in which he argues that Wales seems to lack the ideas to address the lack of innovation within the economy, which is proving a barrier to growth when coupled with the lack of investment in knowledge. As he states, " Evidence from leading regions around the world indicates that while universities can play an important development role, they are usually supported by a dense system of institutions, including publicly-funded research institutes and laboratories dedicated to applied research". Of course, nowhere is there a better system to support R&D than that found here in Cambridge, Massachusetts and over the next two days, I will be attending the Regional Competitiveness Conference to discuss how we can partner with MIT to bring some of their best programmes to Wales One ...

Today, the University of Wales started its agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the World’s leading universities. Founded in 1861, MIT has produced 75 Nobel Prize winners, seven of which are still working within the institution. With just over 10,000 students, it attracted £383 million of external research funding last year. More importantly, its success in commercialising research is unrivalled globally. For example, it has been estimated that the 25,800 currently active companies founded by MIT alumni employ about 3.3 million people and generate annual world sales of £1.5 trillion, producing the equivalent of the 11th-largest economy in the world. Today, the University of Wales has become a partner in the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP), which helps leading global companies keep pace with industry changes, develop new products and processes, and adopt innovative management practices. As part of this arrangement, Welsh companies that are members of ...

This week, I am back in the USA or, more specifically, in Massachusetts visiting a number of universities. Whilst I will be visiting a range of academic institutions over the next couple of days, my primary aim is the launch of a new relationship between the University of Wales and MIT - one of the top universities in the world. I will blog more on this later this week but, as I have mentioned previously, there are many lessons to be learnt from the MIT experience. Indeed, the model is so successful that the Singapore Government is replicating it. As this article describes , Singapore is looking to copy the success of MIT with its own new institution - the Singapore University of Technology and Design - which will be headed up by former MIT Professor Thomas Magnanti, who headed the MIT School of Engineering - the best in the World. SU opens its doors in August 2011 and its strategy is based on looking at how the world's great entrepreneurial universities - Stanford, which gave birt...

Yesterday, the all party finance committee came out with what is possibly the strongest criticism yet of the Welsh Assembly Government’s handling of the recession. Its report noted that rather than focusing on the downturn and dealing with Wales’ growing unemployment problem, Labour and Plaid Cymru had focused instead on delivering the ‘One Wales’ agreement. As this blog has said time and time again, and despite the spin generated by economic summits, the Welsh Assembly Government simply has not changed its overall approach during the deepest recession since the Second World War. Nowhere is that more obvious than in WAG's annual spending plans, where the committee noted that: funding for health and social services account for 40.3% of the budget next year, while the share for the economy and transport fell from 8.1% to 7.6%. there were questions over the savings made by reducing health boards from 22 to seven given the no redundancy pledge, and the allegation by NHS finance directo...

It has become such a familiar story that even BBC Wales can't be bothered to report on today's unemployment figures showing that Wales continues to perform worse than the rest of the UK.

As this blog has pointed out time and time again, the ProAct scheme is a policy that could support businesses through a recession, but only as part of a wider package of measures. It certainly isn't the panacea to the deep-seated economic problems faced by our country. Despite the fact that small firms have been hit hardest during this recession, 68 per cent of ProAct funding has gone to large firms and I find it strange that £1.1 million of public support should be offered to a multinational company such as Corus, especially when there are thousands of small businesses that require help during the economic downturn. Of course, there are those who disagree with this, such as Gareth Jones, the Assembly Member for Aberconwy, who recently was moved to write a letter to the Daily Post criticising my stance on this issue. I have a lot of time for Gareth, which is why I am perplexed that he suggested in his letter that I was wrong to criticise "the ProAct scheme for investing a mill...

Last week, an article appeared in the Times which highlighted the dangers faced by Scottish Universities following Lord Mandelson's proposed shake-up of the higher education sector in England. The warning came from Lord Sutherland, former principal of Edinburgh University, who believes that there are significant funding implications for Scottish Universities if universities in England are able to charge higher fees whilst improving the experience offered to students and making a more explicit contribution to Britain’s economy. Of course, higher education is devolved in both Scotland and Wales and what applies to the Scottish Higher Education system probably applies even more so the sector in Wales. Therefore, rather than rewriting the whole piece to reflect the Welsh viewpoint, I have merely substituted "Wales" for "Scotland" in the Times article. It does not make easy reading for politicians and policymakers in Wales. "Welsh universities could fall behind...

Every year, I go and pay silent tribute to a grandfather I never met because, like millions of others, he died serving his country during the Second World War. I am sure all of our thoughts on this special day of remembrance will go out to the families of all our serving troops who are risking their lives to help others.

Last week, the Western Mail reported on "Size Analysis of Welsh Business, 2006 ", a government report that provides data on the structure of enterprises active in Wales, including employment, turnover and the sectors in which businesses operated. Drawing on its own unique Welsh data set, it indicated that 41% of business sector employment was accounted for by large firms i.e. enterprises with 250 or more employees. Not surprisingly, the CBI commented that this proved that large businesses were “vital for Wales’ economic survival. It went on to say that while large firms accounted for 0.8% of total businesses, they contribute a staggering 55% of Wales’ national turnover and that, as a result, we should “readjust our understanding of what factors deliver the most wealth and employment for Wales and support them to innovate and grow here in Wales.” So there we go, 20 years of an academic career down the drain! Why on earth have I bothered to focus on supporting the development ...

Clearly, the main political story is the decision by David Cameron not to veto further powers for the National Assembly for Wales if two thirds of members vote for them and the Conservative Party is in power in Westminster when such a decision is made. He also made it clear that Conservative party members would be free to campaign for or against further powers as they see fit. Naturally, as a pro- devolutionist within the Conservative Party , I am glad that this issue has been cleared up once and for all and that we can now focus on developing policies towards the next Assembly election. However, if you read some of the recent political commentary, you would have thought that it was only the Conservative Party that has any difference of opinion on key issues. Of course, that simply isn't the case and you only have only look at the differing policies being put forward by the three candidates for the labour leadership. For Plaid Cymru , even the most die-hard nationalist would find d...

.... Unit Engineers and Constructors Ltd of Pembroke Dock . Since starting in 2004, this Pembrokeshire-based company has grown to a turnover of over £17 million in 2008 and its workforce to 167 people. In 2008, the total turnover of all the firms on this year's Fast Growth 50 list was £565 million as compared to £273 million in 2006. Therefore, the companies have collectively generated £292 million of additional sales in two years at an average growth rate of 107 per cent. As in the previous ten years of the list, Fast Growth 50 firms have created employment at a time when the economy was at the edge of recession. In the period 2006-2008, the fifty companies will have created around 1900 new jobs, doubling their workforce. If we take this in context of the entire Welsh economy, government statistics show that number of people employed in the private sector in Wales increased by around 12,000 people in the period 2006-2008. Therefore, this year's Fast Growth 50 has been responsi...

A lot of attention has been given by the Western Mail to the joint press event held yesterday by Peter Hain and Rhodri Morgan. According to their interpretation of the proposal by the Conservatives to cut down on the number of Welsh MPS, there would be a knock-on effect for the Assembly unless new legislation was introduced to change the way its members are elected. The logic is that as the Government of Wales Act requires that the constituencies from which the 40 directly-elected AMs are chosen are identical to the ones used to send MPs to Westminster, both of them argued that this could result in an Assembly with just 30 constituency AMs and only 15 AMs from the top-up list. I assume this calculation has been made because the 2006 Government of Wales act states that "the total number of seats for the Assembly electoral regions must be one half of the total number of the Assembly constituencies". The Secretary of State for Wales then went on to state that "With the Ri...