4. Statement by the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales: Response to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:54 pm on 6 May 2020.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 3:54, 6 May 2020

Well, Joyce Watson is absolutely right—we've seen incredible innovation across Welsh businesses during the course of the crisis. We've seen distilleries turn their hands to making hand sanitiser, we've seen businesses in the aero sector produce ventilators, we've seen a huge number of businesses producing vital PPE, and I'm in no doubt that those efforts will continue for some weeks to come.

There will be opportunities that will emerge during the course of the recovery, and innovation will be crucial in making sure that we take full advantage of them, and that's why I'm determined to ensure that we intensify our call for businesses to utilise the calls-to-action funding, the economy futures fund that was set up to futureproof businesses, to drive R&D and innovation. One of those five calls is, of course, innovation, and I’m confident that we made the right decision when we published the economic action plan to include innovation as one of the five calls, and I'm absolutely determined to maintain it as one of the key features of our condition of funding in the years to come.