PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

  Last week, the Welsh Government launched its first ever international strategy for the nation .  Its ambitions are to raise Wales’ profile internationally by building on its reputation as a place buzzing with creativity where people are free to innovate and experiment; grow the economy by increasing exports and attracting inward investment; and establishing Wales as a globally responsible nation.  To achieve this, the Welsh Government have set out a number of priorities, all of which will add value to the economy going forward. This will help raise the nation’s profile through a variety of interventions including increasing Wales’ presence with Europe, working more closely with the Welsh global diaspora and empowering key Welsh organisations to enter difficult markets.  To become globally responsible, it will become the first country to put the UN sustainability goals into law by promoting the Well-being of Future Generations Act, become known as a world-leading na...

I was recently honoured to be invited by Alun Davies, the Honorary Consul for Hungary in Wales, to have lunch with Péter Szabadhegy, the Hungarian Ambassador to the Court of St James. It was a wonderful event, especially in meeting some of the Hungarian immigrants who had come over to Cardiff in 1956 and had made such a success of themselves in their adopted country. Our conversations also took me back to the various research projects I undertook in Budapest, including one of  the first analyses of academic entrepreneurship within this former Warsaw Pact country in the 1990s. Since then, Hungary has developed considerably and the Ambassador, who hails originally from the private sector, described the enterprise and growth that has grown his country’s economy over the last few years. Hungary is certainly doing better compared to some Western European countries with inflation low, wages rising and unemployment falling from 10.2 per cent in 2013 to 7.1 per cent in 2015. Som...

Over the weekend, I had a twitter dialogue with Rhuannedd Richards, currently chief executive of Plaid Cymru. She was responding to a comment by the First Minister that having access to the UK Government's international division, UKTI, was one advantage that Wales had as being part of the UK. Rhuannedd noted that she was "Surprised that Carwyn Jones used how Wales "benefits" from UKTI to justify continuation of UK. Wales has never been important to UKTI". I am wondering where she received this information as it is certainly different to what I was told by UKTI in a meeting a few weeks ago. Indeed,  I was informed that UKTI had supported 376 Welsh firms to internationalise their activities even though this should be a devolved matter. Indeed,  more crucially, I wonder how this compares to whatever services are now offered by the Welsh Government, especially given that it was Ieuan Wyn Jones, when economic development minister, who abolished IBW (Internatio...

The First Minister of Wales recently visited China to sign an agreement with Chongqing, a major city in the west of the country. This commits Wales to furthering economic development links and continuing to work together with this municipality in the fields of science, technology, culture, health, education, agriculture, forestry management, environment, governance and tourism. Whilst a visit by the First Minister to China to develop further links is to be welcomed, this is hardly groundbreaking progress. In fact, this latest relationship merely builds on an earlier memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Chongqing Municipal Government and the Welsh Assembly Government, signed by Rhodri Morgan in 2006 in which they agreed to collaborate and co-operate in a number of areas. As regular readers of this blog will know, I am an avid supporter of Wales going out to the World  to not only trade with different nations, but to form important relationships that can help change ...