Thank you for the series of questions. It's a good place to be making a statement, five years after Ken Skates launched the development bank. It's fair to say that, at the time, not everyone was as optimistic that we'd be at this point celebrating its successful journey, with it overachieving its investment targets.

On your point around small businesses and how aware they are, actually, the Federation of Small Businesses undertook their own survey, which was published in February of this year, and it found that two thirds of their members were already aware of the development bank, and, also, there had been a significant increase in brand perception of the development bank over that five years since it was introduced, and that, actually, 92 per cent of customers had stated that they would use the development bank for future funding needs, and, again, that nine in 10 associated the development bank with being honest and trustworthy. And, I think, actually, when you think about financial institutions, that does show that not only has it got a significant amount of penetration and awareness within just five years, but that it also has a good reputation among its existing customers as well. We're interested in getting more of those people in that final third more aware of what the bank does and taking advantage of the products that it has to offer.

As I said in my statement, the investment that can take place from the development bank, whether loan or equity, or a combination of both, is often part of the package of investment support, and that, I think, goes into your point around co-investment. Recently, I met with high-street banks and the development bank to talk about some of the challenges for the economy in Wales, the challenges that we've been seeing with the rise in interest rates, and what the investment climate looked like. Now, there is always a challenge in that some businesses are retrenching and not making investment choices, which is understandable given what's happened in the last six or seven weeks. But there are still businesses that are looking to invest.

What we're talking about today is the launch, or the indication that we're going to be able launch within the turn of this year—that's my target; if not, then early in the new year—a new product to help people to invest in their future, to decarbonise and help with energy costs as well. So, we are looking to acquire more people to come into that area. And that's also an area where lots of high-street banks say that they have funds available for further investment. So, the challenge will be on co-investment, what DBW can do, what businesses themselves often put up—they're often looking for someone to bridge the gap between their finance and someone else—but also other potential investors, not just high-street banks. It does include, as I have mentioned, other equity investors.

Part of our challenge is that most of the equity investment that takes place across the UK is concentrated in London and the south-east. If you were having this conversation with the south-west of England or the north of England, they would be looking on and saying, 'The problem is, there's too much in the over-heating south-east corner of England.' And they themselves—and if you talk to the FSB—would say, 'We would like to have a regional development bank like the Development Bank of Wales.' It's a positive advantage that people and business recognise, but we also do need to make sure that other equity investors look at Wales, to add to what we're doing in the development bank.

Now, I mentioned the Cardiff capital region and their investment, but also the British Business Bank. They're unlikely to have their funds ready until next year. When the investment was announced by the former Chancellor, who's now the Prime Minister, he announced there would be a fund in Wales. It's fair to say that, at that time, there wasn't a plan. There is now something that looks more like a plan, and the development bank, as I say, have been engaging and really constructing what that would look like. It will still take time for that to get up and running, so I'm looking forward to that extra investment coming in to add to the picture. And, in addition, there are also not just individual private investors, but a number of sovereign wealth investors—from Europe and beyond—who are looking at opportunities in Wales. And part of the balance that we have to strike is, where is that a real opportunity, and how can we make sure that we get a deal that doesn't mean that those assets are taken out of Wales, but are grown here as well.

I think that it goes on to your point about the tech sector. Both fintech and cyber are really good examples of where we have a strong sector in Wales and the opportunity to grow more—certainly in parts of the conversations I've had with banking institutions, with other sovereign wealth funds, and indeed with the sectors themselves. We really do have a very positive group of sectors within Wales. I think that it's one of the things we under-appreciate, that the rest of the world is looking at what we're doing and is very positive about it, both in terms of learning how we've got here, but also looking at whether they can invest in helping to grow the sector here as well. And in each of those sectors, we're likely to see high-value employment.

The offer from both DBW and Business Wales includes tailored support, which I've mentioned in my statement, so it won't just be you'll get money—you'll get some support and consultancy around that. We've indicated that, in the new fund on investing in decarbonisation, consultancy support could be part of what's created, to understand the specific needs of an individual business. I'm very pleased to reiterate what I said about employee ownership, not just the management buy-out funds, but what we're already doing with groups like Cwmpas Cymru and the funds that they are running, to try to increase the number of employee-owned businesses across Wales and meet our manifesto pledge to double the sector.

And finally, on your point about how we'll make sure that this is well known around Wales, of course, the development bank has five offices, located in Cardiff, Llanelli, Llandudno Junction, Newtown, and the headquarters, of course, in Wrexham.