PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Next Thursday, voters will be going to the polls for the second time in just over two years to elect a new government for the United Kingdom. Largely unexpected by most political pundits, the general election was called by the Prime Minister in April to “guarantee certainty for the years ahead” as the country enters negotiations with the European Union over its departure. For businesses, this certainty will be crucial especially in terms of the position we take on Brexit negotiations and the impact on our economy. But whilst it is critical for the next Government to ensure that UK businesses can weather any potential storm that could arise from our leaving Europe, there has been very little discussion to date on manifesto policies that directly affect businesses. Instead, other commitments have dominated the headlines, not least the muddled messages over the Conservatives’ social care policy and Labour’s spending plans which, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, co...

There must have been a huge sigh of relief from the Welsh Government earlier this month when Ernst and Young released their annual report on foreign direct investment . With the results showing that with Wales having increased its number of foreign-backed projects by 244 per cent since last year, the Minister could be forgiven for opening a couple of bottles of bubbly to celebrate such a turnaround in its fortunes in this arena. In fact, Wales saw its foreign-backed projects almost quadruple from nine to thirty one in 2012, the highest total for five years, creating 2051 new jobs in the process. But it is not all good news as only 4 per cent of foreign investors chose Wales as the most attractive destination to set up foreign operations, the same as Scotland. In contrast, 45 per cent saw London as the best place to relocate. This suggests that there is still a long way to go before the Welsh Government gets its offering right in attracting new businesses to set up here. Certain...

Last week, I attended a conference organised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to examine the future of manufacturing . It was a timely event, as I am currently undertaking research into the development of advanced manufacturing in Finland during the last thirty lessons and the lessons that other small economies can take from this experience. We heard from a range of experts in the field, including Professor Martin Schmidt of MIT, who has been advising President Obama on a new emphasis on manufacturing within the US economy . The report from his review is fascinating, mainly because of the differences in the philosophy regarding economic development as compared to most parts of Europe . In fact, the conclusions to the report to ensure American leadership in advanced manufacturing comprehensively rejected a picking winners policy, either in terms of individual companies or specific sectors. Instead, it proposed pursuing an innovation policy for advanced manufa...

Earlier this week, the accountants Ernst and Young released their annual UK Attractiveness Survey, a study that examines inward investment and the attitudes of global investors. It showed that whilst the UK attracted 679 projects and nearly 30,000 jobs in 2011, this represented a decline of 7 per cent on the previous year. More worryingly, Germany is now becoming the major country within Europe for investments from Asian economies such as China and Japan, although the UK remains the most attractive country for Indian businesses. Regionally, the picture was mixed. Whilst the UK economy as a whole has lost ground, London actually increased its share of foreign direct investment by 13 per cent. In contrast, Wales showed the largest decline of any part of the UK and its share of UK inward investment projects is now only 1.3 per cent as compared to 9 per cent eight years ago. Indeed, if we compare Wales to Scotland, we see that our fellow Celts enjoyed the highest level of inward in...