5. Debate on the External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee report: The Welsh Government's Draft International Strategy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:57 pm on 4 March 2020.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 3:57, 4 March 2020

Well done that man. But I think the audience we'd have, curiously, on the other side of the Atlantic would absolutely recognise his contribution. So there are real assets here that we can use and, Minister, if you haven't, I'm more than happy to show you around, down in my constituency, show you where he was born and see how we can use that sort of legacy. 

But, backing away from that, in the minute and a half that I've got remaining what I did want to say was that it was wonderful when I saw that the Government had actually responded to the very well-chaired committee's report and the evidence we had by accepting all of it. I have to say that some of the feedback that I've had from the business community as well has been very encouraging, both in terms of the focus that this international strategy is now placing on Wales as a brand, as an entity, and what we can do and some of the strands of it, and the feeling of optimism around it. But—there has to be a 'but'—one of the things in accepting all the recommendations here, and it was a theme in the committee that looked at it, is that we actually do want to see more detail. We want to see granulation. There's high-level stuff in here that we would approve of, but there are some sectors that aren't touched on, but are, as the report shows, touched on in the economic prosperity strategy and this, that and the other, but we need to see some of that evidence of the underpinning. Because if it's not all going to be in this strategy, we need to see how we measure success.

Beyond the three areas that the Chair has referred to, in the wider area of developing Wales's impact internationally, how do we measure success? Otherwise, the Minister will stand in front of us in the next Labour-led Government in four years' time or five years' time and say to us, 'Well, I've done all those things', and we'll say, 'Hold on, you didn't tell us what we were measuring.' So that's what we need. That would be the real prime criticism: whilst welcoming your acceptance of everything that we said in this report, our big cry was that we need more detail. Now, it may be that this is a live document, it may be that there are rafts of plans underpinning this from different departments, in which case those linkages need to be made clear so that we can then measure the success of this Government. But there's a feeling of optimism, I have to say, around it. That's what I'm picking up from people I speak to outside, so keep on driving that forward, Minister, but just give us the detail as well.