According to data released by the Welsh Assembly Government, the value of exports for Wales for the last twelve months fell by £1,602 million compared to the previous four quarters. There were decreases in exports to EU countries and in exports to non-EU countries, down £480 million (9.0 per cent) and £1,122 million (22.8 per cent) respectively.
Wales had the largest percentage decreases in the value of exports over these twelve months (down 15.6 per cent) followed by Northern Ireland and the East Midlands (down 14.5 and 9.1 per cent respectively). The largest increases were in London, the West Midlands and the East of England (up 8.2 per cent, 8.1 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively).
Given such depressing data. especially in comparison to the rest of the UK, there needs to be a concerted effort to ensure greater support for exporters in Wales. If it is possible for the USA, the free market centre of the World, to have a strong trade and export organisation to support greater internationalisation, then Wales must have the same.
The abolition of International Business Wales (IBW) clearly shows the lack of understanding by politicians and civil servants regarding the importance of exporting to a small nation and, more importantly, the support that government can offer.
IBW was not only about bringing in large inward investors but about supporting the export drive of those businesses already within the Welsh economy.
That impetus has now gone and, as the latest figures show, at a time when there needs to be a greater focus on the exporting front for the Welsh economy.
Comments
See http://www.globalbydesign.com/blog/2010/09/08/the-decline-of-foreign-markets-and-the-rise-of-local-markets/
Such a shift, it's argued, is not exclusive to large companies or corporations. Opportunities exist for smaller privately owned companies also if they're willing to invest in exploiting the web and multilinguality.
Also, just to add, the latest figures showed a rise in value of Welsh exports of £253m for the first to second quarter of 2010, outperforming the UK average by 5%.
I don't deny the Welsh economy is still on shaky ground, but I don't think it's quite THAT bad (yet).
You could thus argue that WAG can do very little except do their best to keep these firms in Wales (and Tata's recent investment is a step in the right direction).
But there is also the point that Dylan alludes to, that we need to vastly improve the export performance of our SMEs.
He is not the only one saying this - Rob Huggins of UWIC noted in the Western Mail recently that “Compared with many other regions, Wales barely engages in the global economy. The percentage of Welsh companies engaged in exporting is only 2.1%, the lowest of any UK region, and well below the UK average of 3.4%. Internationalisation is crucial to Wales’ future well-being, but the risk is that devolution will result in further economic isolation. Wales should take a leaf out of Scotland’s book, which is far more advanced in terms of internationalisation policies.”
We can argue about the merits of the abolition of IBW but it is left a vacuum for the development of internationalization in Wales.