PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Earlier this week, the Scottish Government published a new National Strategy for Economic Transformation. This contains seventy actions across five key priority programmes which, following a detailed analysis of Scotland’s economic strengths and weaknesses, have been identified as having the greatest potential to deliver economic growth. Given that there is no similar economic strategy here in Wales, it provides an interesting framework for the Welsh Government to examine in terms of approach over the next four years. I was particularly excited to see that one of the key priority programmes will focus on entrepreneurship to create a culture which entrepreneurship is encouraged, supported and celebrated. To achieve this, it will focus on four key projects that will result in Scotland being recognised as one of the best countries in the world to start and grow a business, surely something that should be an ambition here in Wales as well. The first of these projects is that of embedding t...

They say a week is a long time in politics and the last seven days has certainly demonstrated that old adage remains true. Last Saturday, I again made the case in this column that those entrepreneurs who had started new firms in Wales in 2019 and 2020 would not be supported by the Welsh and UK Governments’ interventions to support businesses during Covid 19 and needed help urgently. Simply put, this meant that at a UK level, 12,000 Welsh startups would not get a Covid-19 self-employed grant as are clearly unable to provide self-assessment data for 2018-19 nor would they be able to get a business rates grant as most do not have premises and either sub-lease or work from home.  In Wales, the fact that they are less than two years old and with the vast majority not VAT registered, those start-ups based in Wales cannot get access to the £500m Economic Resilience Fund announced by the Welsh Government including the new £100m loan programme from the Development Bank of Wales. The respons...

I was delighted to accept an invitation to discuss the imminent creation of a new Scottish National Investment Bank with some its key advisers. The new bank is being created by the Scottish Government which has committed to give it £2 billion over 10 years to provide both debt and equity financing but with a focus on long-term patient capital (typically over 10-15 years). It will start investing in Scottish businesses and communities in 2020 and provide capital for business and infrastructure projects at all stages in the investment life cycle. What is interesting and ground-breaking about the strategy of this new body is that it will take a mission-based approach to investment i.e. Scottish Ministers will set the strategic direction of the Bank by identifying a set of medium-term outcomes for its investments such as transitioning to a low carbon economy; responding to demographic change; and promoting inclusive growth through place-making and regeneration.  This will obviously be ...

I have been very fortunate in my career to work with some brilliant young academics who have gone to make a real impact in their field. One of these is Dr Niall Mackenzie , who joined the University of Wales from Cambridge University five years ago before leaving to go back home to a lectureship at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde University. Niall has been undertaking a number of research studies since he arrived back in Glasgow and possibly one of the most influential has been his analysis of the performance of Archangels, Scotland’s oldest business angel group . Business angels – those private individuals investing in unquoted companies - have received growing attention and recognition for their activities in the UK in the last 25 years. Their investments typically involve receiving equity that is reduced with further rounds of financing for investee companies. As would be expected with such transactions, angel investment involves a risk of failure but...

Speaking to a leading political commentator in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum, he told me that a yes vote would probably be the easiest result to manage as a decision to within the union would no doubt create much discussion and disagreement about the future powers that should be devolved to the constituent parts of the United Kingdom. He was proven right with the last week being a flurry of political activity in the aftermath of the vote, not least in the call for a resolution of the so-called West Lothian question to stop the current practice of non-English MPs voting on issues that have already been devolved to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This follows a pledge by the leaders of the three main parties in Westminster to give "extensive new powers" for the Scottish Parliament whilst ensuring the continuation of the Barnett formula in deciding the amount of public funding that is received by the Edinburgh Government. As most of you are awa...

Tomorrow, the people of Scotland will vote on whether they wish to become an independent nation or remain part of the United Kingdom. My view on the referendum is simple. This is a decision that should be left to the people of Scotland and it is not up to me, or anyone else in Wales, to tell them how to vote. That is not to say that those I am not completely astounded at the complacency that has been shown by the UK parties over the most important referendum our economy has seen since the vote to join the European Union in 1975. To be fair to Carwyn Jones, the First Minister has been one of the few senior politicians to call for a constitutional convention to sort out the increasing calls for greater devolved power from the various parts of the UK if Scotland chooses to remain in the UK. In addition, the Deputy Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales, David Melding, must also take credit for his superb treatises on the creation of a federal Britain in previous year...