According to the paper,
"Leading the way is the food and drink manufacturing sector, which employs nearly 440,000 people and invests more than £1.1 billion a year on research and development – comparable to the automotive sector".
"The Food and Drink Federation said that over the next seven to 10 years the industry needed to hire 137,000 new recruits. Angela Coleshill, FDF's human resources director, said of that total, 45,000 people are needed to fill higher-skills roles such as senior management and technical positions. The sector's population is ageing and, in the next seven to 10 years, around one-fifth will retire," she said. "Our big challenge is replicating this knowledge and people." The total number of apprenticeships in the sector had doubled in the past 12 months to 2,500, she added, but this was "still not enough".
Indeed, as the Welsh Assembly Government notes, the Welsh agriculture and food production industry is undergoing a transformation designed to realise its full potential as a major force in the economy.
Given this, you have to wonder why the food and drink sector was NOT chosen as one of the six priority sectors for the economy?
5 comments:
... why was the sector not chosen by WAG ?
... no vision, blinkered by a failed political model.
In the meantime, Google publishes a report today saying that Welsh businesses are being left behind the rest UK because of a lack of presence on the web.
It states that the 'web based economy' contributed £100 billion to the UK economy last year.
The authors are surprised that as much as 25% of small to mid-sized companies in Wales don't have a website. They claim that companies with a good web presence have grown seven to eight times faster than those without.
The report also states that Wales compares unfavourably with the rest of the UK as regard to broadband access.
I appreciate that the ultimate aim of the report is to also drum up more business for Google. But it's correct that ICT is one of the key sectors in the ERP and that plans are afoot on improving broadband.
It's a pity that in the meantime this report has surprised business leaders in Wales and that from the outside, Wales has an image of being (once again) behind the rest of the UK.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/welsh/hi/newsid_9130000/newsid_9134000/9134042.stm
The ICT sector (ERP) is to consist of ‘those companies whose core activity is designing, developing or manufacturing products and / or software content and who employ highly qualified, well paid staff in the pursuit of this activity.’
You will interpret that this is quite different to advertising products and services on line using a website (so don’t get carried ANON)
The WDA had the ICT support service that help clients specifically with website design and implementation (there was also a grant thrown in).
Yep WAG scrapped IT 3 years ago!
The food sector is supported by WAG - just not the Department of Economy and Transport bit of WAG. Food etc is supported by the Rural Dept - so obviously not included in the ERP document which is all about DE&T. See http://wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/farmingandcountryside/ruraldevelopment/axis1/processandmarketinggrantscheme/?lang=en and around there for what's gong on. A fragmented approach to economic development, but an approach all the same.
And what about the creative industries sector - doesn't that fall partly under Alun Ffred's portfolio?
The Economic Renewal Programme is suppose to be an economic strategy for Wales and not an economic strategy for the Department of Economy and Transport.
No wonder it is as incoherent as it is.
A poor excuse.
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