Can I thank the economy and skills committee for producing this excellent report and its attempt to analyse what constitutes the foundational economy? I would also like to note the Government's overall positive response to the recommendations made. I believe that what comes out of this report is the clear need to define what constitutes the foundational economy. Perhaps a fair description could be said to be the activities that provide the essential goods and services to sustain everyday life, this regardless of the social status of the consumers. The delivery functions would be carried out be a number of local participants—local authorities, health, education, welfare services and local infrastructure projects—together with utility providers. All should be major contributors to the foundational economy. If we add to these food production and processing, together with the retail and distribution, perhaps we have a complete picture of what we would call the foundational economy. So, how do we make sure that these constituent parts are brought together to sustain a particular locality? Well, this in itself begs the question of on what form would any particular locality be based—local area authorities, local regions, or some other carefully defined geographical entity?

One of the stark realities identified in the report is the lack of the skills needed within local authorities with regard to implementing local procurement policies. Does this mean we should move to larger entities in order to capture these skills, or does the Government create the funds so that these skills can be bought in or developed in-house by local authorities? Other factors affecting a well-structured, local procurement strategy are the difficulties in measuring outcomes and the sharing of best practice. So, will public services boards be instrumental in establishing the principles that govern the criteria for adoption by local anchor institutions and lead on establishing scrutiny boards to collect and analyse data for the foundational economy?

There's little doubt that local procurement by the public sector will play, or to a large extent is already playing, a major role in creating a local foundational economy. Whilst the public sector will provide the anchor support for the foundational economy, manufacturing and food supply chains will also play a substantial part in making it work. Locally sourced food is not only desirable economically, it should also have the benefit of being fresh and, of course, would avoid long-haul transportation costs. Manufacturing on a local basis is more complicated due to the necessity of having economies of scale. These, of course, can be partly overcome by having a Wales-wide market or perhaps an export market to England and the rest of the UK, and even foreign exports. There's no doubt that the expansion of the foundational economy could bring many advantages, particularly to communities that have for far too long been locked in poor economic growth. I'm convinced that both the Minister and Deputy Minister for the economy are dedicated to improving the performance of the Welsh economy, but it is time that the Welsh Government begins to deliver on the many promises made over the last 20 years. The Welsh public demands as much.