The impact of Business Wales can perhaps be most clearly seen in the positive effects it has had on our economy. For every £1 spent through the Business Wales service, £10 is generated in the wider Welsh economy, with up to £17 in the more focused areas of support. The four-year survivability rate of start-ups supported by its work now stands at 85 per cent and that compares to 41 per cent for those who do not get support. Twenty per cent of jobs created by Business Wales's support are filled by unemployed people, increasing to 40 per cent for jobs in self-employed enterprises.

Given the significant amount of structural funding that the Business Wales service has benefited from over many years, it is important to point out that these benefits to our economy are as a direct result of our membership of the European Union. And whatever happens over these coming months and weeks, I want to pay tribute to our partners in Europe who have, through support for Business Wales, helped us to achieve these important things.

But through all of our work, we've always kept asking ourselves one important question: what next? How can we make our services, through Business Wales, sharper and more tailored to the needs of firms and companies the length and breadth of Wales? This is why, in 2017, I was delighted to launch the Development Bank of Wales, our response to the market failure we saw in start-up and growth finance here in Wales. An institution, I'm pleased to say, that now manages over £1 billion of finance, supporting Welsh firms and projects across the country.

But reflecting on these achievements and in thinking about future challenges, it’s time for us as a Welsh Government to work with you as the National Assembly for Wales to help put Business Wales on a stronger footing for the future; to prepare it, and consequently our businesses, for what our economy will look like after Brexit; to help it help us with the wider challenges we identified in the economic action plan of preparing for digital disruption, of improving productivity, of increasing the incidence of fair work, of decarbonisation and of promoting inclusive growth. And so, over the last few months, I have been working closely with my officials to begin that work: work we want you, as members of our national Parliament, to support us with; work that can build on, evolve and enhance the Business Wales service for the future.

Central to that work has been the overriding aim to make Wales the very best environment anywhere in Europe to start up and grow an inclusive and sustainable business. To do that, we have focused our work on three key areas. First is the key area of creating a future Business Wales service that is a high-quality, front-end advice and inquiry portal; one that provides everyone who wants it a one-stop shop for digital, helpline and inquiry support.

The second element has been to focus on the creation of a service that can enhance the capacity and the capability of our regional economies in Wales to support inclusive growth. In short, that means having a business support service that works with partners in the regions and communities of Wales, with local government, with our universities, our colleges and with our high street banks; one that makes simple but strong connections between partners to make those places fantastic locations to start and grow a business.

And the third area of our work focuses on inclusive and sustainable growth. As a Minister, I have been very clear that every business has a responsibility to support inclusive growth, and in turn, as a Government, we have a duty to create the conditions within which more micro and small businesses can grow in inclusive and sustainable ways, to become thriving SMEs, to support the productivity, profitability and resilience of existing medium-sized businesses, to secure their long-term future ownership and to ensure the promotion of fair work.

My intention is that Business Wales will continue to be delivered on a national footprint, and to ensure efficiency it will also build on current provision to provide further opportunities for regionalisation that will align with the regional frameworks being developed by the chief regional officers. I will aim to make sure that the Welsh Government plays its part in ensuring Business Wales has the investment needed to make the service a success.

With the right support and investment, we believe that Business Wales can have a significant economic impact, helping businesses create up to 6,000 new jobs a year, by maintaining the impressive four-year survivability rate for supported start-ups and through adding some £220 million of value through goods and services into our economy annually.

But while I want to be honest with the Chamber about what we can achieve, I also need to be honest and blunt about the danger we face, too. The UK Government’s failure to confirm that replacement structural funding will come back to Wales puts the future viability of delivery services like Business Wales at risk. For Business Wales, this means £12 million per annum is at risk, and opportunities with it that we cannot afford for our businesses and our communities to lose in a post-Brexit economy.

I'll be working very closely with my colleague the finance Minister and with wider Welsh Government colleagues to ensure that we repeat our clear and unambiguous position: not a penny less, not a power lost as we leave the European Union. My commitment to building a high-quality Business Wales is absolute. I hope that the UK Government will not stand in the way of that ambition.