The Welsh Government undoubtedly made a strategic error when ditching the successful Welsh Development Agency. It had the skills, the expertise and the contacts to serve Wales on a long-term basis. All the expertise, skills and contacts developed by competent and experienced staff was discarded and lost forever, and it could be said that Wales has never recovered from that disastrous decision. Its replacement by the Welsh Government's initiatives such as the Valleys taskforce falls into line with all other past initiatives: it fails the first test of any plan—measurability. The signposts are missing, which, of course, prevents overall assessment of its progress. After reading the two sets of minutes of the taskforce, you begin to realise that there is no detailed joined-up plan, but simply an incoherent jumble that seems to mimic the defunct Communities First programme.

Two years on from the production of yet another glossy brochure, there is still no clear focus and it would seem that efforts are spread over too large an area. The Bevan Foundation also says that solutions to the lack of skills and qualifications are conspicuous by their absence.

I do welcome the plans outlined earlier by the Deputy economy Minister, and I am sure that his enthusiasm and commitment are genuine, but he has still not indicated how all the effectiveness of these initiatives will be measured. If we take one example of the ineffectiveness of the taskforce, Ebbw Vale has seen a 50 per cent reduction in bus services into the town centre, and Stagecoach experienced 50 breakdowns in just one month, including a bus fire in the Blaenau Gwent area. Surely, the taskforce should be examining such matters given its impact on local businesses and connectivity in the Valleys in general, otherwise where does its remit lie? We should also raise the question as to the make-up of the taskforce. Is the make-up of the taskforce the right one for this initiative? It is said that the right composition should bring coherent and subjective planning to undertake the necessary actions required. Are the skills and competences present in the present governance structure? Most of the initiatives are far too small to make a difference and, indeed, moving jobs from one place to the next can hardly be called creative.

In Wales, we need a total reinvention of the economy with all the parties involved and focused to work together. It is time to end the business of playing party politics and concentrate on putting things right in Wales, because we have to all agree that there are too many things wrong in Wales. As an ex-director of the WDA said some years ago, the key aspects of the problem are superficial politics, lack of technical analysis and focus and a civil service culture that is not task orientated.