Entrepreneurship and innovation are the key to economic success in Wales

God- a bit of cut and paste here-stating the obvious -over the past 25 years the same narrative but nothing has progressed.I have read and heewared the same over the past decades so what is being said is not news-Wales talks the talk but as always no action from a Labour dominated country ....

Do we remember the Techniums and while they largely failed? I am not against but they need to be run better.

Well, you're not wrong about the inward investment model being a proverbial chocolate teapot. That much has been obvious since the days of the WDA. Many still feel nostalgic for that era. The truth is, as you put it, bribing comercial concerns to set up shop in Wales, vaunting the jobs they bring only to see them move on again shortly after, has done the Welsh economy and our communities no good at all. And you are quite right, that home grown enterprises, supported by our University sector (within a proper tax and regulatory framework of course) offer a great deal more and should be a focus for government in turning our trajectory around. Interestingly Mike, you mention that they would not be sufficient alone and you are correct in that. However you then move on to the well known economic phenomenon of agglomeration without truly understanding its consequences. As so often happens in economics, where there are "winners" it follows that there are "losers". The agglomeration in and around the City of London is a critical component of the economic strategy of successive UK Governments since the days of Thatcher and her enthusiasm in pursuing the policies of deindustrialisation espoused by Patrick Minford. It is now the model upon which the UK economy is built and it is a model of the London "Core" to the rest of the UK as "periphery" and it is for the most part what is responsible for building in the extreme economic inequalities (the UK has an atrocious GINI index value) we experience. It is a consequence of the extreme capitalist model that is operated and pertinently for us here in Wales, its consequences include a braindrain of graduates (attested to here in this publication), a housing crisis that threatens the very fabric of our language and culture and huge numbers of Welsh children growing up in poverty - Mike you know the harm that causes. We cannot retain this economic model and expect to improve our lot. We cannot retain the current constitutional settlement if we wish to change the economic model. We have returned a majority of Labour MP's in every GE since 1922 and it has not made a jot of difference to our economic trajectory. Your colleague, Lee Waters claimed to have "thrown the kitchen sink at the Welsh economy and it still has not budged". The trouble is Mike is that you have not thrown the kitchen sink at our economy. The kitchen sink is gathering dust at Westminster locked away in a cupboard marked "Tory Government property". If you want to make a difference we have to go get it and bring it back to Wales. I implore you to consider the work of your fellow Labour member (as I understand it) - Glyndwr Cennydd Jones, who envisions a radical change to Britain's constitution. That is a new Confederal Union. We cannot affect change unless we possess the political agency to do so Mike. Is that not apparent? Jones' proposal, whilst not some polished finished product, is at least a proper starting point for the conversation we need on the constitutional relationship between the nations of these isles. Time to let the old imperial edifice pass into history Mike. Time we joined the modern world.

Once again Mike Hedges has pretended he knows something about the economy by presenting the same wish list we have seen so many times. It is very tempting to write a detailed response, but it will fall on deaf ears. In a letter to the South Wales Evening Post last week, he wrote, almost with pride that the Welsh economy had "stagnated rather than declined." He needs to be reminded that he can write all the wish lists he likes but the reality is that this stagnation continues, and on his party's watch.

Last time I checked, Aston Martin was in St Athan, not St Asaph!

Your party's inaction speaks louder than words Mike Hedges. How can Labour , be it Welsh or UK, transform Wales economically when Labour has opted to managed Welsh poverty & aspirations in equal measure rather than eradicate and transform by giving Wales the powers & levers needed. Remember, nothing has really changed over the 23 years Welsh Labour Senedd rule and I include 13 years wasted under Blair & Brown's New Labour tenure where not once did they regard Welsh poverty or democracy their priority. They continued the cynical Wales-only agenda while feathering England's nest with hundreds of billions and I can see no change under sinister unionist Keir Starmer's Blue Labour. It's as you were. The irony is. Labour, a party you support, who claim to be architects of so-called Welsh devolution, deliberately gave Wales in 1997 a toothless talking shop Assembly with less power than a parish council. Labour doesn't really want a confident Wales full of entrepreneurs and innovation. Why? Because that leads to confidence, prosperity and independent people & nation which Labour doesn't want. And we find ourselves again in the very same position we were all those years ago where again a Labour promises all a land of milk & honey under Labour where they will continue to transform England while keeping Wales accustomed to the lifestyle it's always experienced under both Labour & Tory rule, which is underinvestment, nelgect and poverty. Labour like the Tories have deliberately and cynically weaponized poverty to keep Wales & Welsh dependent mind, body & spirit like a people trafficker would its victim. We must always remember that It doesn't have to be this way. We can change Wales for the better. But first we must awake from our British browbeaten stupor to break us free of our Unionist ball & chains that hold us back.

As someone who has a doctorate (from Cardiff uni) and has had a successful early career in biotech/pharma (in the US) before returning to Cymru, I have some thoughts on this. It is true that clusters of innovating businesses around universities attract good people and generate income. I worked for several years in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) in N.Carolina. This cluster of 3 universities, Government Instutes (NIEHS) and businesses (eg.Glaxo) in a smallish rural state, generates a higher GDP than the entire economy of Wales! In this small area, it has more working PhD level scientists, engineeers, coders and Nobel prize winners than have ever been generated by Wales living or dead in its history. So why cannot this be replicated in Wales? To be fair, the Welsh government has tried, over the years, to do something on these lines (eg.Techniums, and inward investment incentives) but, as has been pointed out, these efforts and initiatives have been expensive and useless. In my view, there has been an arrogant and naive reluctance to properly study (or even visit) the many successful examples (like the RTP) that exist, to learn the lessons of the many failures and only then apply what has worked to Wales. Mind you, I have no idea what would work here or even if it would be desirable. Maybe not. The world and its economy is changing rapidly.

Blah, blah!

Tautological, eloquent. But first in Wales we need the 'basics, or 'Hygiene Factors.' but that £6 Billion of EU Funding that should have put these fundamentals in place have been frittered away b the intermediaries (Quangos, Regional Govt, Local Govt, 'Training nd enterprise agencies etc.) on intangibles. They have vanished into the ether. Unlike in Eire. Our Opportunity and time has passed.