Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 2:11 pm on 17 May 2017.
We’ve not had a strong and stable exchange rate in recent months—it’s something that the business community and our economy most certainly need. Depreciation of sterling since the referendum result has been a double-edged sword, in terms of what it has delivered for some exporters in Wales. As Mike Hedges suggests, one effect is to push up the cost of imports, and this adversely affects exporters both directly, as it increases the cost of imported inputs, but also indirectly, as it increases prices across the whole economy, and therefore affects even domestically sourced inputs.
Now, I’m keen to make sure that we examine supply chain opportunities for, in particular, key manufacturing sub-sectors, where there are opportunities across Wales to grow small companies, and indeed to start up new companies. I can think of a number of opportunities in the automotive sector, where currently, considerable numbers of parts for cars produced in the UK are actually sourced from outside the UK, whereas as we leave the EU, it may well be possible to grow businesses within Wales that can act as supply chain manufacturers of goods for the automotive sector. For that reason, a summit is being convened that will bring together the likes of Bentley, Toyota, Vauxhall, Ford and Jaguar Land Rover to ensure that we examine fully and scrutinise the opportunities for a stronger supply chain in the automotive sector.