Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 10 July 2019.
Thank you for your answer, Minister. Your Deputy Minister, of course, has recently said that the Welsh Government has pretended to know what it's doing on the economy for the last 20 years, and efforts to improve the economy under devolution have not worked. Personally I think it is refreshing to hear a Minister speaking very candidly about the economy. I very much agree with the Member for Blaenau Gwent when he said he would prefer to hear a Minister who speaks plainly and clearly about the challenges facing the Welsh economy. I think the general public agree with that also. With this in mind, is there now a recognition that it's time to approach the economy in a different way? We have had three major economic strategies since devolution, but these efforts to improve the economy have not worked and have not raised the economic fortunes of Wales. Now, the economic action plan covers a large number of different themes but contains no targets for measuring progress, so it is, I think, also contradicted and undermined by the Welsh Government's 2018 budget, which provides no new funding to support any of the action plan's key priority sectors. So, can you, Minister, say what you are going to do to change, and how is your approach going to be different following the Deputy Minister's comments so we can see simplified access to business support, we can align an effective business and industrial strategy, we can reform a failing public procurement strategy to support small and medium-sized businesses, upskill the workforce and reflect this boost with suitably improved infrastructure?