Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 9 June 2021.
The Member highlights one of the conundra: that when people are asked about their business, they're confident, but when they're asked more generally, they have less confidence. It's exactly the same in a number of other areas: where people have personal experience, they feel they have more control, and less confidence when they think about a broader perspective. So, some of this is, actually, about matching up what people are seeing on the ground. When I've met a range of business organisations, including the FSB, I've had an initial conversation about what we can do and I look forward to continuing to work with them, because I think the only way to generate that confidence is in the conversations that we have, but also in the decisions that we make, and whether those businesses can, actually, provide a future for themselves that is both about maintaining businesses that exist and helping some businesses to grow. Some businesses will always be small businesses; others can grow to medium and larger sized ones. We do need to be more successful in Wales in seeing more medium and larger sized businesses developing here in Wales, together with the point about business start-up. We recognise that we do need to have a greater rate of business start-up as well, so I'm looking forward to working with them on what I think is a positive agenda, where we recognise that we're in broadly the same place in understanding the challenges that we have, and then the need to understand how we successfully work together, with the convening power of Government and the levers that are currently available to us.