The Welsh economy has not performed well either before or after devolution. When the Assembly opened in 1999, online retail was in its infancy, it was eight years before the first iPhone, five years before YouTube came online, computer games generated a fraction of the income of today, and the Sega Dreamcast, the world's first internet-ready console, was a year away from being launched. Jobs such as the influencer, professional computer games player and Uber driver did not exist. Since then, employment has become less secure and reliable. In 1999, the Welsh Government continued the Welsh Development Agency policy of enticing mainly far eastern and American investors with grants, offering high skills and relatively low wages compared to other advanced industrial nations, and access to European Union markets. Not all attempts to attract foreign direct investment were successful—and I know this was before devolution, but the principle is the same—with LG being the classic example. In spite of a grant of £200 million, around £30,000 per job, the expected employment did not materialise.

The reason any economy is not successful is the same—not enough skilled and high-paid jobs, too reliant on low-paid seasonal jobs and on primary production, not on adding value. Having listened to the Conservatives on the economy for 11 years, their strategy can best be summed up as agricultural produce, tourism and seeking inward investment to bring branch factories. If someone could tell me of a successful economy based on that strategy, I will happily take an intervention. Again, I will say: if you need to give companies a substantial financial incentive to bring a branch factory here, they don't want to come. Successful places such as Palo Alto, Cambridgeshire and Mannheim do not have to bribe companies to come; they provide the educated workforce, the infrastructure and the opportunities for inward investment and start-ups. Again, what we need in Wales is fewer LG-type investments and more Admiral Insurance. Plaid Cymru's policy of independence would reduce the Welsh economy and Welsh Government spend by a third. The economies of recently independent countries such as South Sudan, North Macedonia and Bosnia are doing less well than the countries they split from.

Successful places need to be able to attract and then retain businesses, and this must be based on understanding their requirements. An analysis of successful and less successful places suggest the following four factors as the key to economic success: a culture of enterprise and innovation, where places adapt quickly to new opportunities and everyone can share in the possibility and reward of business success, this includes embracing the opportunities presented by the revolution in life science, information and communication technology, artificial intelligence, and one of the fastest-growing areas, which is computer games; access to investment, including venture capital, essential for businesses to start up, grow and deliver jobs and opportunities for all; people equipped with the skills that employers need, as well as with motivation and opportunities to work; a culture of lifelong learning, enabling people to fulfil their potential and maximise employment opportunities, enabling a flexible response to changing opportunities and encouraging companies to come to and remain in our towns and cities; an efficient and reliable transport system, enabling efficient delivery of raw materials to industry and of goods to market—and when I say transport, I mean the internet as part of the transport, because if you're an online company, the internet is what you transport information from, and that's what you send your computer games and your music down; and providing access to jobs, making towns and cities better places to live in, and help tackle social exclusion.

Economic and transport planning needs to be based on the Welsh regions. We need to build on the strengths of the universities to see them as economic drivers. Too many students, including many brought up in the area, move away on graduating and often never return. We need science parks attached to universities so that we can use them as innovation hubs, and to specialise in key economic sectors such as—again, as I've said—life sciences, artificial intelligence and ICT. We also need an entrepreneurship and innovation centre that can provide a founder and incubator platform for students, young entrepreneurs and investors. I know this because it works in Mannheim. We need access to capital, not just at the start-up stage, but at the two important growth stages of small to medium-sized and then medium to large. Too many firms on the move from medium to large end up being bought by bigger companies from other places in either Britain or Europe, and the economic benefits then disappear. Work in universities and further education will need to look at upskilling our population; education should not end at 16, 18 or 21.

Finally, it's not a secret formula—we just need Welsh politicians of all colours to adopt it as a means of going forward. To Janet Finch-Saunders on Denmark, a country I've studied in some detail, Denmark has a major industry called Lego, which I think you've probably all heard of, but perhaps the key compared to us is you've heard of Castello cheese, you've heard of Arla, you've heard of Lurpak. They turn their primary agricultural production into secondary goods where they make the profit. We need to do the same.