Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 6 November 2018.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 1:40, 6 November 2018

(Translated)

No, but what I do know is that we need to change the culture as regards businesses in Wales. The tradition of mittelstand in Germany is an exceptionally strong one, and there is a tradition there where companies continue to manufacture and don’t sell out to other companies, but that hasn’t been the case in Wales. This is an old problem. One of the things we were considering at one time was whether we could reopen the Cardiff stock exchange. By now, of course, most are digital in nature. The reason we were looking at the feasibility of that was to ensure that more companies or businesses from Wales would consider being listed on that stock exchange, but, by now, I would say that that’s no longer relevant.

Culture change is the thing for me, to ensure that more businesses from Wales think, ‘Right, we want to grow. We want to stay as we are', and to not always think, 'We must sell out to a larger company'. This is not the case in Ireland, and neither is it the case to some extent in Scotland. So, a change of culture is what’s important.