Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:33 pm on 7 June 2017.
Diolch, Llywydd, and I thank Members for their response to the ideas that we’ve set out, albeit in outline terms, for the reasons of brevity that have been referred to.
I admire Mark Isherwood’s spirit of optimism, and indeed his global ambition, not least for Wales; though we may differ on some of the detail, I think that certainly we need to grasp new export opportunities. We are by our nature and by our history an export-intensive country, but we need to do better. I was reading some replies from the Cabinet Secretary for the economy given to Steffan Lewis, who was asking what new efforts we’ve been making since June 2016, since the vote, to gather new market opportunities, and in the answer it says that the First Minister’s announced the Welsh Government’s intention to commit additional resources to north America and establish a presence in Canada. Well, I don’t see yet the emergence of a new global strategy from the Welsh Government, I’m afraid to say. I mean, there is an export visit to Qatar in October, which we may need to revisit in the light of the earlier discussion.
I enjoyed the contribution, as ever, of David Rees. I think that one of his core points, the need, really, for close collaboration and a concerted effort between the four nations in the devolved legislatures in trade policy, I think, is consistent with the spirit of what we’re saying in this motion as well. In terms of Gareth Bennett, I’ll happily send you, Gareth, a print-out of the city of London’s detailed suggestion on a regional visa programme. Canada operates a provisional nomination scheme and there’s a regional sponsored migration scheme in Australia. So, there are many examples. Indeed, even Scotland, despite the fact that migration isn’t devolved, did have something similar in the fresh talent Scotland initiative back in 2005. So, I hope that whets your appetite, Gareth, to delve deeper into this subject area. I welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s acceptance that many of the ideas that we’ve set out here for the post-Brexit strategy actually are worthy of further consideration, and we’ll take that forward in discussion with him. I have to say—