The committee’s first recommendation sought to address the lack of accountability for international trade and Brexit implementation. Currently, these responsibilities are shared between the First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport. There is a clear danger that shared responsibility can sometimes fall between two stools, or three stools in this case. So, the committee recommended that the First Minister, whoever that may be, should create a specific Cabinet post for Brexit and international trade. I was pleased that the Welsh Government was accepting of that recommendation. It's clearly up to the new First Minister to make that post available.  

The committee’s focus on international trade found that, although export performance was strong, there were concerns that some SMEs were being crowded out of overseas roadshows as the slots made available by the Welsh Government are snapped up so quickly. So, it was unclear how ambitious small and medium-sized businesses that were not already on the Government’s radar could get involved. Witnesses asked, 'How could we be sure that we were taking the A team on global trade missions if businesses were selected on a first-come-first-served basis?' I think committee members thought that was a fair question.

The committee recommended that the Welsh Government develops an export growth strategy to prepare companies for international markets and increase the number of companies exporting. The economic action plan prioritises support for companies to export, but I will highlight the need to reach those businesses that are currently unable to secure a place on global trade missions.

The committee considered the Welsh Government’s overseas offices. Witnesses were unable to point to the impact the overseas offices have had on export. In fact, witnesses were unable to even define the role of them. The level of resourcing and personnel varies greatly from office to office, and there appears to be a lack of links between offices and local authorities, which could support each other, of course, in this area of work. Further offices have been opened in the past 12 months and more are planned, although the Cabinet Secretary does report to us that each office is now required to develop a business plan. But those are still not being shared with the wider world at large and, more importantly, key stakeholders. So, I would say to the Cabinet Secretary that publishing the contact details of your offices on a website isn’t enough. If stakeholders are unaware of the remit of the offices and the support they could get from them, why would they get in touch? Maximising the use of these offices will go some way to increasing the value for money that they can deliver, so it’s important that we get clarity on this.

If I move on to tourism, Wales is the most tourism-dependent region of the whole of the UK. The 2013 'Partnership for Growth' strategy recognised the importance of the tourism industry and the need to work together with the private sector and other organisations to develop the industry further. As with the global trade missions I mentioned earlier, witnesses raised concerns that some businesses are being debarred from what they considered to be the Visit Wales family. Businesses felt left out of marketing opportunities and excluded from the brand. So, I am pleased that the Cabinet Secretary has accepted our recommendation to enable Welsh businesses to access that branding, and I welcome the work that had started to bring together a digital hub of guidance, tools and materials for businesses and organisations across Wales to use.

I was also pleased to hear that the Cabinet Secretary will be considering a number of partnership options that are intended to help businesses develop bookable products. We know that bookable products are attractive to overseas visitors and that overseas visitors account for less than 5 per cent of visits but 10 per cent of spending, so it’s important that we are able to compete in that market.

Finally, I will reiterate the committee’s call for air passenger duty to be devolved to Wales. We’re not the first committee or group of politicians to call for this, and I suspect we won’t be the last, but it’s been devolved in Scotland and it should be devolved in Wales. I see that the Welsh Affairs Select Committee has launched an inquiry on this matter, and, of course, I look forward to seeing their conclusions.

Deputy Presiding Officer, overall, the committee’s inquiry uncovered pockets of good practice but they must be better aligned across portfolios and accessible to businesses if Wales is to meet its potential in this area. I look forward to the debate this afternoon.