It seems that Economic Development Agencies are falling out of fashion across the UK at the moment, part of the UK Coalition agreement was to scrap Regional Development Agencies (RDA’s) in England over the next few years with and transfer their powers to Local Authorities and here in Wales we learnt on Monday during the 'Economic Renewal Programme' launch that WAG is scrapping International Business Wales as well.
It’s no secret that when the Welsh Development Agency (which had its faults) was mothballed and taken into WAG as an act of political vanity by former First Minister Rhodri Morgan other regions of the UK and in Ireland were delighted that their biggest competition was gone for good and the Welsh Economy has suffered as a results, so with Welsh exports falling by £1.7 billion over the past 12 months and the weakness of the pound the decision to scrap IBW looks like history is repeating itself.
I’m sure that International Business Wales didn’t help their cause with Minister and Civil Servants during the expense scandal last year, but with the costs of exports being lower and the prospects for Welsh business expansion and job creation being limited over the coming months one of the things in the new economic development strategy should have been to change the IBW’s main focus to solely helping Welsh Businesses export in these tough economic times rather than scanning the globe for Inward Investment that we all know Wales can no longer compete for on prices and wages, I guess that like a lot of other things must have passed the folks in Department for Economic Development and Transport by.
Like the WDA before it, Wales will come to regret the scrapping of International Business Wales as other parts of the UK and Ireland take advantage of a lack of Welsh focus and identity on the International Business stage, but I’m also sure that no one in WAG will admit their mistakes in the coming years and why Wales will remain a low skill, low wage economy with limited opportunities for the working population in the foreseeable future.Any source
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