PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

The more I write about the ERP, the more I seem to get confirmation from various commentators of the mess that Ieuan Wyn Jones' Department of Economy and Transport (DET) is creating. The latest comments seem to suggest that not only are staff within DET uninformed about what is going on, but so are most of the businesses in Wales that have previously worked in partnership with WAG to deliver jobs and prosperity to local economies. "I can confirm that local authorities have been told not to offer grants above £5k with immediate effect (no such thing as phasing in or out in the WAG vocabulary) - it had been possible to offer grants up to £35k in some areas and to certain projects, although this was not common. There was an opportunity to use the Local Investment Fund to lessen the impact of the ludicrous and disastous overnight closure of SIF, but WAG says No. So £5k is the maximum grant now available to business - important help for many at a time when cash and credit is s...

“As the world emerges from recession, successful exporting companies will be even more important for economic prosperity. Globalisation means our competitors are just as likely to be across the ocean as down the road, so international focus is vital.” Ieuan Wyn Jones, Daily Post, July 28th So that is why you have abolished International Business Wales which, at a cost of £10.5 million in 2009-2010, has created or safeguarded around 7,500 jobs this year. Let us also not forget IBW has helped hundreds of Welsh companies with their exporting activities during the last twelve months - a business support activity which will now be abolished for companies across Wales. International focus is important to WAG - what do you think? Update: read the following extract from a comment that has just been posted: Thanks for setting up this blog, I’ve been reading it every day for the last week and been passing on the link to officers in WAG, clients of mine and other business profess...

It would seem that my critique of the Economic Renewal Programme has elicited some interest on the blogosphere over the last few weeks, with over 5,000 visits to the site during the last month with around 8,000 pages viewed. Given that I use this site to hone ideas for the weekly columns for the Western Mail and the Daily Post, I am very pleased that there is increased interest due to the commentary on the ERP, even if some of the traffic is coming from WAG itself, at least according to the statscounter. I sincerely believe, in the absence of any serious discussion in the mainstream press, that we need a proper debate on this policy given the importance to Wales of these changes and I hope that these articles have stimulated some interest. They will continue both on this blog and in the newspaper columns. However, I must reserve a special thanks to one particular viewer, or should I call him my No 1 fan. Despite his insistence that no-one cares about this blog or my op...

Yet another unsolicited email, this time from someone who runs a manufacturing business that is expanding internationally. "I don't know if you have any inside track on what is happening with WAG/IBW etc but nobody seems to have a clue what the hell is going on".  "We have built a strategy around what they sold us and it looks like we are being  abandoned (as is every other exporting SME).  "These muppets seem to have forgotten about trade and are more interested in giving blokes in Eb bw Vale faster internet to surf dodgy web sites!" A direct but accurate description of the chaos that currently passes for the Department of Economy and Transport as they try and rush through the Economic Renewal Programme. I also gave a speech at the AGM of a £40 million turnover North Wales food manufacturing business last night. They had developed a plan for expansion in a rural area where jobs are hard to get and were told, a few weeks ago, that they no l...

Yesterday, I was copied in on an email sent to the South Wales Chamber of Commerce by the managing director of Holbrook Timber Framing, based in Bridgend. He has given me permission to reproduce the email on this blog which comments on my article from Saturday's Western Mail regarding the Economic Renewal Programme (ERP): "I have read with interest the observations by Dylan Jones-Evans on the ERP announced by WAG recently. We are one of the relatively new start up businesses that have featured in the Fast Growth 50 on three occasions since our start up in 2003. We will turnover approx £4.7million in 2010 and we employ 48 people directly and at any one time we engage the services of 15 subcontractors. "We operate in the manufacturing and construction industries. We have survived the last few years but it has obviously been a struggle. "Dylan is spot on with his observations in the switch of 50% of the SIF to repayable loans, the support of a limited amount of se...

Last week, I examined the role of demise of International Business Wales (IBW), one of the key recommendations that came out of the Economic Renewal Programme (ERP). Indeed, given that much of IBW’s public face has been about attracting inward investment projects to Wales, it is not surprising that the line from the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has been one in which it has heralded "a move away from the traditional grant culture for big business to a culture of investment". Of course, what WAG has conveniently forgotten to tell small businesses is that the ERP heralds a move away from a traditional grant culture for ALL businesses, large or small. I sincerely hope that accountants and business support agencies across Wales have woken up to this fact and are now informing the thousands of small indigenous businesses that have benefited from previous financial support that the tap has been turned off. Whilst a “culture of investment” is to be welcomed, WAG seems to have also...

Finally, I have managed to track down the latest performance data for International Business Wales (IBW). However, I had to go directly to UKTI for this information as it was not forthcoming from the Welsh Assembly Government. For the record, this is the performance for IBW for the year 2009-2010. 65 new projects 3,431 new jobs 3,931 safeguarded jobs This gives a total of 7,362 jobs created or safeguarded by IBW , which is a higher number than the other devolved regions of Scotland and Northern Ireland. More importantly, IBW has been responsible for 7.8 per cent of all inward investment related jobs in the UK , well above what is expected for Wales. Therefore, congratulations can finally be offered to the team at IBW that have done their nation proud against their regional rivals and, more importantly, have generated nearly 3,500 new jobs at a time when we have lost nearly 50,000 in the private sector as a result of the recession. What is shameful about this whole episode is that WAG ...

There have been various rumours on the Welsh blogosphere that International Business Wales has done rather well in terms of the number of new jobs created through inward investment projects in 2009-2010. If I knew the truth, they would be published on this blog, I can assure you. Yet, there has been no press release from the Welsh Assembly Government regarding this vital piece of information. Contrast this with other parts of the UK such as the North West of England , North East of England , Liverpool , West Midlands and South West England , all of which have released information on the number of jobs and projects developed within their regions. What has WAG got to be afraid by not releasing this information? Is it not right that if the rumours are true and IBW has done well in terms of new job creation, we should be lauding this success as a big win for Team Wales? On the other hand, would this just be too embarrassing to the Minister who has just scrapped the body in his Economic Re...

Having posted on the demise of IBW on Saturday, it was well worth reading the comments section on the excellent "Change of Personnel" website regarding the same issue. Two notable comments jump out and I hope that CoP doesn't mind me replicating them here, although I recommend you do read the full article . Anonymous said... Whilst I rarely raise my head above the parapet on matters of the ex-WDA (less I am accused of bias), I am minded to contribute to this debate. As the last Marketing Director of the WDA, I am now forced to ply my trade in the SE of England, where I run Invest Thames Gateway (which does what it says on the tin!). As most Welsh Civil Servants never actually cross the bridge, allow me to tell them what is happening. Disbelief and laughter about the dismembering of the Welsh international identity, for starters. When the whole apparatus of FDI in England is being dismantled, and "localised", this should have spelt a major opportunity for the We...

Before I start, I think that Nerys Evans has been one of the better new AMs and, regardless of political persuasion, is exactly the type of individual that we should see within our National Assembly. Her recent intervention on Communities First was both insightful and long overdue. However, I would like to know how she could have lent her name to the following press release which beggars belief and stretches incredulity to its limit. According to Nerys, "Plaid Cymru has long argued that small businesses are the lifeblood of the Welsh economy and that town centres are the heart of our communities. Since the start of the recession, as a part of the Welsh government, Plaid has worked hard to protect small businesses in Wales from the worst of the economic storm. Now that Wales is coming out of the economic crisis, Plaid leader and Economy Minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones has launched the Economic Renewal Programme which will see significant investment in infrastructure and a move away from ...

In focusing on the Welsh economy over the last week, it is has been easy to forget the general debate on the economic approach at a UK level. That is why it was worth reading a comment piece by Daniel Finkelstein of the Times from last month in which it is suggested the current Shadow Secretary of State for Wales is not quite up to speed with economics. Anyway, I reproduce the article here for you to make your mind up but given the level of ignorance in this short piece alone, you have to seriously worry who is advising the MP for Neath on such matters. Peter Hain's grasp of economics On Saturday night, I caught an interview with Peter Hain in which he made what appeared to be an extraordinary claim "I think we did make a big offer [in negotiations with the Lib Dems]...except in respect of the cuts agenda. Because what we found is that they wanted to do exactly what they've agreed to do with the Conservatives, which is to start cuts this year". Now this is very str...

Over the next month, this blog will look very carefully at some of the new policies developed as part of the Economic Renewal Programme (ERP) launched by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) last week. Hopefully, it will help to start a debate on whether this is the right approach to turn around the Welsh economy and to drag us from the bottom of the UK’s prosperity league table. I will start by examining the decision to abolish International Business Wales (IBW), the Assembly’s overseas investment arm that was responsible for attracting business into Wales as well as promoting Welsh business abroad. Some will say that this decision to close down the last remnant of the old Welsh Development Agency was justified by the outcomes of last October’s review of IBW by Glenn Massey, the former inward investment specialist. However, if you bother reading the Massey report in detail, it actually has little evidence to suggest that the division was doing badly. If we examine IBW’s record on new j...

Having identified the best blog in Wales last week, I was lucky enough. on Monday, to read one of the best articles ever published on the Welsh psyche. Written by the irrepressible Carolyn Hitt in the Western Mail , the article takes to task those small minded people that continually hold Wales back, a mentality that has been prevalent in Newport earlier this week with the "Farmhousegate" fiasco at the Celtic Manor Hotel, which saw local Newport councillors incredibly attack Sir Terry Matthews, a man who has brought over £150 million of investment into Wales' third city. The one paragraph that does stand out though is her reporting of "a remarkable and impassioned rant" from the former Wales coach Steve Hansen on the tribalism that for him was "a source of both fascination and incredulity". To quote Mr Hansen, “There are so many people here who are poisoned by the selfish attitude cancer that runs through this nation. It’s stopping you from being the c...

As I predicted yesterday, it seems that WAG's press office is working overtime to try and minimise any criticisms of the Economic Renewal Programme. They have even gone so far as to write a last minute piece for today's Western Mail to try and explain how this new approach will benefit SMEs (whilst conveniently omitting the fact that they have cut support to the vast majority of small businesses in Wales). Sorry, guys, your arguments just don't stack up and if that is the best you can do, then you need to get a new job. For example, perhaps the Minister can explain why, in an interview in 2007 , he said he was keen to increase business support to start-up companies and said " It is not just about the grant aid which is available, but giving the right advice at the beginning, in areas like the business plan, financial management and securing premises.” Does he believe that, because of the recession, and new economic circumstances, that start-ups no longer need this busi...

It would seem that my article in the Western Mail on Saturday regarding the Economic Renewal Programme has ruffled a few feathers down at WAG, so much so that the press office Deputy First Minister has written a letter to the paper to remonstrate about my audacity in challenging the grand plan. As it is considered bad form for columnists to respond to a critique by writing a letter back to the Western Mail, I therefore thought I would let you have my thoughts by replicating the letter on this blog. Dear Sir/Madam, It seems Dylan Jones–Evans must have not read the details of our new policy ‘Economic Renewal: A New Direction’ (‘WAG takes big risk by withdrawing support from smaller firms Sat 10th July). If that is the case, how come I had spotted that officials couldn’t even spell entrepreneurship in one section of the report (page 45, first paragraph, for your information). The sad fact that I had read the whole report three or four times and still can't fathom how such a strategy ...

Whilst there is a massive public relations exercise going on by WAG to persuade everyone that the business community is wholly behind the new Economic Renewal Programme (ERP), there seems to be a growing disquiet amongst the vast silent majority of small businesses in Wales that they have, to use an academic term, been shafted. If you read some of the comments on this blog last week, it is clear that there is increased concern that small businesses in Wales will be left by the wayside in the drive for a sector-led economy where civil servants are under the delusion that it will be large firms creating the jobs of the future. As one commented, the Department of Economy and Transport "need to thoroughly explain how help for SMEs will change and how much help they will gain/lose as a result of the ERP. Basically, show how SMEs if they will be better off of not." Given the way that the needs of the small business community in Wales have been largely ignored by this consultation, ...

I have recently discovered the joys of what is, in my opinion, simply the best blog in Wales. Run by Anthony Brockway , Babylon Wales is a treasure trove of quirky facts about Wales and all things Welsh over the years. Being a big fan of the " Hollywood Babylon " books of Kenneth Anger, this Welsh version is more accurate than its distant US relative and actually of far more interest than the sad decline of third rate American cinema actors and actresses. It is a treasure trove that is delightful to read and prompts the inevitable "I didn't know that" on nearly every visit. My particular favourites from last year include: Hermann Goering's Bullet-Proof Car (when his car was on display in Castle St, Cardiff in 1947 R .S. Thomas and the Hell's Angels , which discusses a cult novel about Hell's Angels from the Llyn Peninsula Sophia Loren in Crumlin , a description of the a visit by the great Italian actress during the filming of Arabesque Haile Sela...

People often ask why I bother writing this blog, given that the audience it reaches is very small. Well, apart from the fact that it gives me ideas for my two weekly columns in the Daily Post and the Western Mail, it hopefully enables those who are interested in some of the issues surrounding the Welsh economy to also comment on current issues of note. One such comment was posted on the article regarding the new Economic Renewal Programme launched by WAG on Monday. Whoever has posted this comment obviously has thought through his concerns carefully. More importantly, this demonstrates an enormous hole in the entire process behind the ERP . As the commentator notes: Another problem is that the lack of consultation. WAG like to say that they have have the biggest consultation excersise , but this is a front. The reasons why: 1) The consultation document did not ask for specific policy questions regarding the re-organisation of the DE&T. I'm shocked to see the changes after readin...

One of the groundbreaking adverts from the 1980s (and one that was even adopted for a presidential campaign) was Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef” campaign. After attending the launch of the Economic Renewal Programme (ERP) this morning, I am afraid I feel a little bit like the three old ladies in that infamous clip. Certainly, it was an uninspiring presentation and a disappointing document overall, with little real evidence for any of the policies that have put forward to renew the economy of Wales, apart from the fact that they ‘had consulted widely with business’. On reading the details, it would seem that WAG has mainly consulted with the CBI and have adopted, hook, line and sinker their preoccupation with supporting large firms in Wales to the detriment of the SME sector, which seem to be the biggest victim of this shake-up. Certainly, one would not disagree with one of the central planks of the ERP, namely of moving away a grant culture towards one that is based on repayable loans. Howe...

Earlier this week, as the fallout from the Education Minister's announcement was being painfully absorbed by Vice-Chancellors across Wales's universities, I speculated that one of the potential mergers could be between Bangor and Aberystwyth. I noted that "this would make sense in terms of establishing a rival research led institution to Swansea and Cardiff but this would only work if there was a clear delineation in subject areas across the two campuses as the distance is too great for any meaningful interaction i.e. science and business at Bangor; arts, humanities and social sciences at Aberystwyth". Ironically, the current Vice Chancellor of Aberystwyth University, Professor Noel Lloyd, has suddenly announced that he will retire at the end of the next academic year. Given that a new Vice Chancellor has already been appointed for Bangor, isn't this now the perfect opportunity for both institutions to merge their senior management, especially given the fact that ...

Have just read a fascinating report on the important role of cities in enabling growth within the private sector. Written by the Centre for Cities, the report entitled "Private sector cities: a new geography of opportunity" highlights the major challenges faced by the coalition government in creating new jobs within urban centres, estimating that 620,000 extra posts would be required to raise England's lagging cities up to the national average. It highlights the regional imbalance that has grown during the last decade in terms of job creation. For example, the research found that for every private sector job generated in the north and the midlands between 1998 and 2008, ten were created in London and the south. It recommends that the government will need to adopt a ‘radical new approach to economic development in order to unlock the potential of our cities and increase private sector growth’, such as: making planning rules more supportive of growth and significantly inc...