Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 1:46 pm on 15 June 2016.
Plaid Cymru wanting to go back to the 1980s to create the WDA and go back to quango heaven: no, we prefer accountability to sit with the Welsh Government. When it comes to exports, one other factor that’s worth bearing in mind is that we saw some categories soar in recent times—we saw machinery specialised for particular industries exports up 30 per cent, we saw road vehicles up 21 per cent, we saw increases in exports to Qatar, up 46 per cent. It’s why the—[Interruption.] They may understand it. It’s why people—[Interruption.] Let’s hope they understand this: commodity prices have fallen. Petroleum products’ value also has caused not just exports in the UK, but exports elsewhere, to fall in value. That is a fact of the matter. That is a reality around the globe. Setting up another quango will not solve the problem of commodity prices or petroleum prices.