Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 17 May 2017.
I think the Irish example is one that certainly demands scrutiny and appraisal, but it’s my view that as we leave the EU we will need to work even more closely with the Department for Trade and Investment at a UK level, and intensify our activities in terms of trade missions and in terms of attracting foreign direct investment. We’ve enjoyed, actually, very recently, figures that have come out showing that exports have risen by a record amount. We’re seeing an increase in exports faster than the UK as a whole, up by more than £700 million, but there’s no doubt that as we leave the EU we will need to intensify our efforts to find more new markets and ensure that more businesses export.
The degree to which a country exports is a determining factor in how productive the economy is, and it’s my view—and I’ve been pressing this message with the business community—that more businesses in Wales need to examine the potential to export to more territories. For that reason, we’re looking at more trade mission opportunities and at more engagement programmes to ensure that businesses, large and small, are given every bit of support from Welsh Government they can get to enable them to export.
But one final point that’s very important as well as we leave the EU—currency stability, of course, will be a crucially important factor that determines the damage or the benefits in the aggregate that leaving the EU will deliver to Wales and the UK. But we must go on working where we can with other parts of the UK, both internally and as the UK on an international stage, not least because huge opportunities are delivered to us by Governments outside of Wales, but within the UK, in terms of trade investments leads and also intelligence on new and emerging export territory. So, it’s important that this Government goes on working with other Governments across the UK.