Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:44 pm on 24 January 2018.
Thank you, Presiding Officer. The real Andrew R.T. Davies has only left me with three minutes to close this debate, so I won't be able to namecheck all who took part, but I would like to thank all Members who have taken part in the debate this afternoon. I hope I can also reassure Hefin David that I will be the real and reasonable Russell George that he mentioned in the last debate, and I think the real Hefin David is a Conservative as well. I have to say that.
But I think we all share the same aims here, in this Chamber: we want to see a prosperous Wales in the future, but as Andrew R.T. Davies pointed out in his opening remarks, the view is that the Welsh Government has no road map, of course, for taking and driving forward the long-term economic development across Wales. Now, the Welsh Government's latest economic strategy contains plenty of words—17,000 in total. I recently mentioned I'd taken this as my Christmas reading over the Christmas period. What it does fail to do is bring forward ambition. That's what this document fails to do. One thing that is absolutely crucial—what it does do: it doesn't give any targets. That's the job of an opposition party, and Labour backbenchers: to provide scrutiny to the Government, and it's difficult to do that if there are no targets in the document. So, in short, I think it fails to provide a comprehensive strategy for delivering economic prosperity across Wales.
Of course, Andrew R.T. Davies also, in his opening remarks, talked about GVA. We're at the bottom of the league table when it comes to weekly earnings, and we're at the bottom of the league table when it comes to regional inequality.
Now, if I come to UKIP's contribution and amendments, I'd say some of UKIP's amendments I can agree with. Your amendments were better than your contribution, I have to say. Caroline Jones spoke about the long-term economic strategy, and I'm pleased to say that that's exactly what the UK Government has done through the publication of its industrial strategy. Caroline Jones also talked about growing the economy of Wales. To grow the economy of Wales—you do that by backing the high speed 2 line, which actually grows the economy of north and mid Wales. I think that's important.
Janet Finch-Saunders and Darren Millar gave outstanding contributions. Darren got better and better, and as he got better and better he got redder and redder, but that was because of his frustrations with the tourism tax. Janet Finch-Saunders pointed out a list of organisations that are calling on the Government to take the tourism tax off the table. So, I would say: please, Government, take that off the table, and that will, of course, allow the economy to grow.
When it comes to this document here, there are plenty of warm words in it—17,000 warm words—but the document makes—. The Cabinet Secretary talked about things being left out. One thing he's left out in this document is any mention of enterprise zones and attracting foreign direct investment into Wales. Perhaps that is an admission about the complete lack of success that these measures have had despite the hundreds of millions of pounds that have been put into these projects over the last 20 years.
Presiding Officer, I think I'm about over time but can I just suggest that the Welsh Government devotes the same amount of time as the UK Government does to the industrial strategy to lay the foundations for improved living standards, economic growth and a more prosperous and equal Wales? I commend our motion to the Assembly.