Part of 2. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 2:35 pm on 1 March 2017.
Thank you very much for that answer, and obviously, locally, we appreciate your support for the Swansea bay city region deal. While attracting large employers to a region is important for jobs and the economy, 99 per cent of our businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises, and 75 per cent are actually microbusinesses, as you already know, which means that small businesses do play a very important part locally, particularly in the supply chain. The UK Government challenge to the current board identified the need for greater private sector involvement in the city deal bid, and I’m wondering are you and the Cabinet Secretary for local government willing to work with partners to ensure that there’s an appropriate balance of small business representation on the project’s next iteration of the board, so that those 95 per cent of our businesses can be adequately represented as well. Thank you.