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since I last presented Week In Week Out. Tonight, I'm back with a | :00:09. | :00:14. | |
vengeance, older? Certainly. Wiser? I hope. I'm here to report on the | :00:14. | :00:17. | |
deepening crisis in the Welsh economy and how the Welsh Assembly | :00:17. | :00:27. | |
:00:27. | :00:30. | ||
Government is handling it. The BBC has asked me to do it because I was | :00:30. | :00:37. | |
a television journalist for nearly 40 years. But also because for more | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
than 25 years, I've been heavily involved with Welsh industry. As | :00:41. | :00:47. | |
such, I have some stark messages for Welsh politicians. You're the Welsh | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
creators and destroyers. They tell me you're a NEET, what's that? | :00:52. | :01:02. | |
:01:02. | :01:32. | ||
2030, the smart people will have We are the poorest region in the UK. | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
If this is a crisis, the future is an emergency. European business | :01:37. | :01:41. | |
leaders have drawn a line in the sand, 2030. By then they say the | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
global economy will be totally different from anything we know | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
today, exlosively competitive. That means the children starting school | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
this year in Cambodia and Vietnam and throughout Asia and South | :01:55. | :02:01. | |
America will emerge from their educational process as productive | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
workers in booming economies. What about the children starting school | :02:05. | :02:11. | |
near Wales this year? What's does the future hold for them? It pains | :02:11. | :02:18. | |
me to say that unless urgent action is taken they will emerge from their | :02:18. | :02:28. | |
:02:28. | :02:34. | ||
educational process into a clapped The village where they parents live | :02:35. | :02:40. | |
shows evidence of serious decline. We have slipped 12 percentage points | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
against average UK GDP in 20 years. This is an unemployment black spot. | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
A quarter out of work, twice the UK average. At the community centre | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
there's a jobs club to help people find work. Wayne, a paint sprar, has | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
applied for 77 jobs since he was made redundant in February. Any | :03:01. | :03:06. | |
response at all from any of them? Yes, but one response by mail and | :03:06. | :03:14. | |
I've had one letter off a company. They said they will keep my CV on | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
file. Most of the stuff I'm searching for now, especially in the | :03:19. | :03:24. | |
powder coating, is mostly up in the Midlands. Nothing here in Wales?Not | :03:24. | :03:30. | |
a lot, no. You're still fit and well? Yes, fit and raring to go.You | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
really have a skill too. Yeah.Well keep trying. Yes, I will.Never give | :03:35. | :03:42. | |
up. No.They tell me you're a NEET, what's that? Well not in education | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
or training or I haven't got a job. Have you ever had a job yet? Yes. | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
Was that? Working in the local Chinese round here and when I was | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
16. How many jobs have you applied for? I applied for about 15, 20 a | :03:57. | :04:04. | |
week. Because of my lack of skills in some departments, I find it hard, | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
like they don't get back to me or send me e-mails saying I haven't | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
been successful. Though I try really hard I still don't get anywhere. So | :04:12. | :04:18. | |
it's pretty hopeless? Yeah, it does get you down a lot. I don't sleep | :04:18. | :04:23. | |
often. Because I think what am I going to do. How old are you?19. | :04:23. | :04:30. | |
Nobody seems to look upon you to help, like, but it is quite depress | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
depressing. I'm only 19 as well, people think oh, yeah it's easy for | :04:34. | :04:40. | |
youngsters to get a job, but it's really not. Kate Gillet helps people | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
find work, but the only local vacancies are in construction or | :04:44. | :04:51. | |
care homes. You're suggestioning that if there are jobs they're | :04:51. | :04:59. | |
likely to be far away, nothing much here? There isn't much here, other | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
than partime positions. People are cutting their cloth with the | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
economy. Even organisations have to rein it in some way. We're finding | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
that flexible working practices and partime positions are more likely to | :05:10. | :05:20. | |
:05:20. | :05:20. | ||
come up on your search than fulltime positions. Aim a qualified | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
plasterer. And you can't find a job? How many have you tried? 30 plus. | :05:26. | :05:31. | |
Will do you if you can't get a job? I'm just going to keep looking. | :05:31. | :05:36. | |
you going to do any more training, perhaps? If it has to come down to | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
that, then yeah, look into it. into it? Have a go for it. You must | :05:40. | :05:50. | |
:05:50. | :05:50. | ||
have a go at it. Don't give up. It all seems pretty hopeless, doesn't | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
it? It makes your heart sink. The only jobs available are in England | :05:55. | :06:01. | |
or in care, looking after the elderly. Is that the future for the | :06:01. | :06:11. | |
:06:11. | :06:13. | ||
next generation? In the 1980s I founded the Wales quality centre. 18 | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
months ago as chairman, I asked 150 captains of industry how would they | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
survive in the future. They said only if cad ral -- radical action | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
were taken now. This is how one of them responded. By 2030 all the | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
smart people would likely have left Wales leaving behind people whose | :06:31. | :06:40. | |
main job is to support the burningoning cost of geriatric. | :06:40. | :06:46. | |
can vouch for the fact that industrialists, certainly | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
manufacturers are underwhelmed bit Welsh Government's performance in | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
their regard. But let's be clear about this, they're not say saying, | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
I'm certainly not saying, that the crisis is the fault of the present | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
Welsh Assembly Government. That would be ridiculous. It's an | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
historic trend, over 100 years, though we do notice that it's got a | :07:07. | :07:14. | |
lot worse in the last 15 years. But what we are entitled to say | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
industrialists, you and me, is that we would expect our newly elected | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
Assembly to be all-out to fix it. I'm sometimes tempted to go into | :07:24. | :07:30. | |
that Assembly, when the 60 are in session, and shout out Bill | :07:30. | :07:40. | |
:07:40. | :07:52. | ||
Clinton's message to them -" It's We are as a company very proud of | :07:52. | :07:58. | |
the fact that we are a manufacturer. We make stuff. We take raw material, | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
raw metal bar and we turn it into products that are used all over the | :08:03. | :08:12. | |
world. Manufacturers like Guardian of Bridgend are the lifeblood of the | :08:12. | :08:17. | |
Welsh economy but feel neglected by Welsh Government. I think they do | :08:17. | :08:21. | |
pay some attention, sometimes just lip service to the manufacturing | :08:22. | :08:28. | |
base. If you look at Germany and how quickly they came out of the 2007/8 | :08:28. | :08:33. | |
reception, they have a higher manufacturing base than we do and | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
they came out quicker. When you look at what adds value to a national | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
economy, be it Wales or the UK, it's taking something and turning it into | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
something else which has a higher value. People like you have told me | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
what we need for the future, 2030 and beyond, is a culture of | :08:50. | :08:56. | |
innovation. If you look at the low-cost manufacturing markets, they | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
are always continually coming up the value chain. If we're going to stay | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
ahead and do anything which adds value to Britain plc in the global | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
market, we've got to keep ahead of those lower costs. We will never be | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
low cost. Britain is not a low-cost place to work. So we have to go | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
further and further up the value chain and the only way to do that is | :09:17. | :09:27. | |
:09:27. | :09:35. | ||
they would need to be successful in 2030 that they don't have now. The | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
most common answer - education. Welsh education, they said, is not | :09:40. | :09:46. | |
fit for purpose in schools, colleges and ats the university. The | :09:46. | :09:52. | |
16-year-olds who leave school, the NEETs, as they're called, I quote, | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
virtually unemployable, largely illiterate, innumerate and without a | :09:56. | :10:02. | |
vestige a work edgic. The universities, I Queiq, turning out | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
masses of useless arts graduates going nowhere, but not the engineers | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
and scientists that we need now and we'll need them in great abundance | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
in the future. The colleges, who provide the skilled training for the | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
mass of the Welsh workforce, they provide the courses that suit them, | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
not the courses that suit industry. Of course, they're not all like | :10:24. | :10:32. | |
that. There was a new building built here last September. Just in time | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
for the cutting edge Biocatalyst company across the road, which | :10:36. | :10:41. | |
develops and produces enzymes for the food industry. Last year, they | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
were having such trouble recruiting the right people, they were thinking | :10:44. | :10:52. | |
of moving to Germany. When people come to work here in the R & D side, | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
they go in a laboratory and they have to do practical work. We were | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
having graduates come here who had almost no practical skills at all, a | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
much lower level of practical skills than say someone leaving school 20 | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
years ago. I mean, there's possibly many reasons. Some say it's health | :11:09. | :11:14. | |
and safety in schools, so they don't do experiments, also in | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
universities, because the numbers have increased, they don't spend as | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
much time doing practicals. But other countries seem to get their | :11:21. | :11:27. | |
scientists to spend more time doing practicals. Hence we have overseas | :11:27. | :11:33. | |
scientists working here. Things are changing. The new state-of-the-art | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
build building has enabled Stuart West to send three apprentices there | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
to learn the skills his company needs. He has a college keen to work | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
with him. Everyone benefits. The apprentices learn partime at the | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
college and they're doing paid work with Biocatalyst. I understand in | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
your case you chose an apprenticeship rather than | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
university because you had the A-levels to get you into university, | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
why? I think going through university you learn a lot of | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
academic side but they don't necessarily know how to apply that. | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
I've always wanted to learn and work at the same time. I feel that would | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
be much more advantageous. Good. What about you Stuart, what do you | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
think of these young chaps? We get graduates coming for interview who | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
don't seem to have done this sort of thing, so this is perfect for us. | :12:23. | :12:33. | |
And having the college ten minutes away is even better. | :12:33. | :12:39. | |
The new building cost �40 million and the principal is proud of it. | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
It's a beautiful area. Lots of light coming into the building. Welsh | :12:43. | :12:49. | |
Government will spend �318 million this year on FE colleges which train | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
the mass of the workforce. But only 12% of that is allocated to | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
engineering and related courses. The principal acknowledges the problem. | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
One of the criticisms that's been made of colleges generally is that | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
since they're funded by the Assembly it's all about bums on seats to get | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
the revenue, what do you say about that? Funding is very important. | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
It's important to any institution that you work in. We have reduced | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
the number of courses where there aren't progression opportunities for | :13:20. | :13:28. | |
learners into employment. We've had to shift resources from one area, | :13:28. | :13:30. | |
which may be very popular and it may be a subject that the students want | :13:30. | :13:32. | |
to follow. But if there are no further opportunities for them, then | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
we turn the tap off. We encourage them into new areas where there is | :13:36. | :13:46. | |
:13:46. | :13:51. | ||
When I began my reporting career, 50 years ago, iron, steel, coal | :13:51. | :13:57. | |
employed hundreds of thousands. Today's industries are cleaner and | :13:57. | :14:02. | |
greener and smaller, but can small to medium-sized industries give us | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
the prosperity we need? Yes, if we give them the support to innovate | :14:07. | :14:17. | |
:14:17. | :14:19. | ||
and the supply of talent they need. We have the talent. Two Welsh | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
youngsters recently won the UK young engineer of the year award. | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
engineer of the year award. winners are... Wasim Miah and | :14:27. | :14:33. | |
Jessica Jones. Absolutely amazing. Didn't think it would happen. | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
judges said the UK's engineering industry has an incredibly bright | :14:39. | :14:47. | |
future if these two are anything to go by. Hello, Jessica, I remember | :14:47. | :14:53. | |
you. UK engineer of the year. What are you doing now? I'm studying | :14:53. | :14:58. | |
astrophysics at the moment. At the university? Yes.This is the first | :14:58. | :15:04. | |
year? Yes.Jessica's award was for a device to monitor contractions | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
during labour. She does all her experimenting in her parents' | :15:07. | :15:12. | |
garage. This was the prototype that won. This is an early prototype. | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
Since then, I've developed a fibre optic version which we're applying | :15:16. | :15:21. | |
for patent for. There are plenty of applications for. It I would like to | :15:21. | :15:25. | |
set up a business to protect the license, to license the patent to | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
the business and start manufacturing it. Her inspiration came from her | :15:29. | :15:36. | |
father and a teacher at her old school Willows in Splott. I had the | :15:36. | :15:42. | |
most fantastic and supportive teach teacher, Mr Keith Ellen. He's | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
retired now, so they don't offer a GCSE electronics course any more. | :15:46. | :15:51. | |
Which is a real shame. Only are you a good scientist, a good engineer, | :15:51. | :15:55. | |
but you're also a budding entrepreneur, whether you like it or | :15:55. | :16:01. | |
not. Where did that come from? think engineering combines very well | :16:01. | :16:07. | |
with entrepreneurship. I had the great pleasure of seeing a design go | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
from a concept right throw manufacturing a prototype. It gives | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
you an entrepreneurial feeling. It makes you want to take it further. | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
You want to see what will happen if you take that product to market. It | :16:19. | :16:23. | |
doesn't always work, but it's, engineering encourages you to be | :16:23. | :16:28. | |
innovative. That's the one thing that my electronics course did. It | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
encouraged me to think outside the box. Last year, only a third of | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
graduates from Welsh universities were in subjects which industries | :16:37. | :16:42. | |
say are vital, science, engineering, maths and technology. Do you think | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
there's enough emphasis in Wales on innovation and manufacturing? | :16:47. | :16:52. | |
Definitely not. You go to a country like Germany and engineering is seen | :16:52. | :16:56. | |
as an important profession, as important as a doctor. Over here, | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
children aren't sure of what an engineer actually does. I don't | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
think it's promoted properly. The stereotyping that women can't do | :17:03. | :17:08. | |
engineering is wrong as well. It's all just a misperception and we need | :17:08. | :17:14. | |
more young people to change that perception. Jessica has a bright | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
future. But of 221 secondary schools in Wales, only 32 teach electronics | :17:20. | :17:29. | |
to GCSE. How does the skills minister respond to industry's view | :17:29. | :17:35. | |
that education in Wales across the board is simply not fit for purpose. | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
The qualifications review will ensure that the qualifications | :17:38. | :17:42. | |
offered to young people are revent to the needs of the local economy | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
and more likely to help them into employment. We're introducing a new | :17:46. | :17:52. | |
planning and funding regime for further education and school sixth | :17:52. | :17:55. | |
forms, which will ensure there's a greater collaboration between the | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
providers of education here and training. All of that employers will | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
have a key role to play. Of course our apprenticeship programme. | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
pick up a point about the funding you're providing for the colleges. | :18:09. | :18:17. | |
Last year, that was 318 million, impressive figure. 12%, only 12% of | :18:17. | :18:25. | |
that went to engineering or related subjects. That's a deplorable state | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
of affairs. We have not sought to control how colleges choose to spend | :18:30. | :18:35. | |
their money. We are certainly driving within our apprenticeship | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
system and the qualifications system to encourage more young people, | :18:40. | :18:46. | |
particularly girls, to per sue the stem subjects. The skills minister | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
is right about that. We need more engineers or more politicians | :18:50. | :19:00. | |
determined to produce more engineers. In the last 40 years, | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
we've had two great opportunities to reverse the long economic decline | :19:04. | :19:14. | |
:19:14. | :19:20. | ||
and lift ourselves out of poverty. to lift Wales out of poverty and set | :19:20. | :19:26. | |
her on the road to prosperity came in the mid-1970s with the creation | :19:26. | :19:32. | |
of the WDA, Welsh Development Agency. It had money to spend. The | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
greater part of its resource came from the value added to industrial | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
and derelict land reclaimed by the land authority for Wales. It was a | :19:41. | :19:51. | |
considerable pot of money. From the start, the agency developed a policy | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
of inward investment attracting business, large and small, into | :19:55. | :20:02. | |
Wales instead of concentrating on developing existing Welsh industry. | :20:02. | :20:09. | |
This made Welsh businessmen very, very angry. Sir Roger Jones, the | :20:10. | :20:14. | |
great innovator and entrepreneur was chairman of the WDA when it was | :20:14. | :20:19. | |
taken indoors by the Assembly. hoping perhaps that as chairman of | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
the Welsh Development Agency I might have been able to influence it and | :20:22. | :20:27. | |
change it. But the mind set was that they knew exactly what they wanted | :20:27. | :20:36. | |
to do and were content to do it. their strategy? To bring in inward | :20:36. | :20:46. | |
:20:46. | :20:48. | ||
companies, who would come to Wales and open factories to employ | :20:48. | :20:54. | |
hundreds of workers. The WDA was hugely successful at that. In the | :20:54. | :20:59. | |
80s Wales attracted more inward investment than anywhere else in | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
Europe. 30 years later, many of them, perhaps most of them, have | :21:03. | :21:11. | |
gone. Inward investment being the main priority successful, though it | :21:11. | :21:19. | |
was, was in fact a tactical error. Yes, well I think it was inevitable. | :21:19. | :21:27. | |
There's always an element of rape and pillage, if you want to call it, | :21:27. | :21:33. | |
if you put money in a market that's new to you. They will be there for | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
as long as the till keeps on ringing. But if it looks as if the | :21:38. | :21:42. | |
financial tide is moving, then they'll be off. If that money, | :21:42. | :21:49. | |
instead of being used to bring people in, had been used to | :21:49. | :21:52. | |
modernise, expand what was already here in Welsh business, wouldn't we | :21:52. | :21:56. | |
have something to show for it now? At the latter stages, this is what | :21:56. | :22:02. | |
the WDA was trying to do was to support indigenous companies more | :22:02. | :22:12. | |
:22:12. | :22:12. | ||
and more. That WDA strategy of inward investment much of which has | :22:12. | :22:17. | |
gone, rather than investing in Wales was a lost opportunity. Then we had | :22:17. | :22:27. | |
another chance. Good morning. It is a very good morning in Wales. | :22:27. | :22:34. | |
APPLAUSE Devolution was a great opportunity, | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
at last our own Government. But Government even self-Government is | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
not an end in itself. It's a means to an end. We gave them power. We | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
expect them to use it. A golden opportunity to lift Wales out of | :22:47. | :22:52. | |
poverty and set her on the path to prosperity. You would have thought | :22:52. | :22:58. | |
that our Government would be hell bent to lift us out of it. But Welsh | :22:58. | :23:03. | |
business people don't recognise any sense of urgency. Coming out from | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
under Westminster, you've now got a small country, small Government | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
which should be able to be fast and flexible, but you don't always get | :23:12. | :23:16. | |
the impression it's like that. companies need to be quick on their | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
feet to keep up with the forge ahead of international competition. | :23:21. | :23:25. | |
They're still waiting for the full devolution dividend. It seems to be | :23:25. | :23:29. | |
very slow and process focussed rather than quick and output | :23:29. | :23:36. | |
focussed. You know that there is a drive now to make Wales plc, so to | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
speak, fits for purpose by 2030. What chance do you think we have? | :23:41. | :23:47. | |
think we have a reasonable chance. It is going to need significant mind | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
set changes in various areas, probably the chief of which is | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
within Government. We are a small company. We're in the middle of | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
nowhere in Wales, but we have carved out a niche for ourselves in a world | :23:58. | :24:04. | |
market by looking outwards. Wales as a whole needs to stop looking | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
inwards quite as much as it does and start looking outwards. If that | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
happens, yes, I think there's every chance of making it. | :24:11. | :24:16. | |
If that is to happen, Welsh industry is entitled to Government support | :24:16. | :24:21. | |
delivered quickly. On one occasion, the politicians and civil servants | :24:21. | :24:26. | |
demonstrated that they can do just that. In 2008, when the world fell | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
into recession, they put together a training scheme, Proact, which | :24:32. | :24:38. | |
helped companies avoid mass redundancies. I would say it | :24:38. | :24:43. | |
preserved about 10,000 jobs. Zblt Government acted quickly? Very | :24:43. | :24:49. | |
decisively. So much so that really the rules were invented almost after | :24:49. | :24:56. | |
the scheme had started. There's a play waiting for Goddo. Two chaps | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
are on stage waiting and waiting and nothing happens. Waiting for Edwina | :25:00. | :25:09. | |
is even worse. I would disgree with that. Mrs Hart in particular is | :25:09. | :25:14. | |
always ready to see you. Her desk is clear. You don't what -- have to | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
wait long for a decision. Goes to committee then, it can take not | :25:19. | :25:25. | |
months but years to get a decision. Not in this sector. I have no | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
criticism of ministers understand of how the sector works and the desire | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
to support it. They can get it right when they try. Sir Roger Jones | :25:32. | :25:37. | |
thinks they need a killure change, a different mind set. I think they're | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
sincere people. They want to do better, but the world is divided | :25:41. | :25:47. | |
into two groups. You have the wealth creators and the destroyers. Alas, | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
the public sector tends to destroy our wealth. It's the private sector | :25:50. | :25:54. | |
that creates it. It's just that there's a lack of understanding of | :25:54. | :26:00. | |
how wealth gets created. In the meantime, the poverty gap | :26:00. | :26:05. | |
grows and so does voter apathy. What have they been doing with their | :26:05. | :26:11. | |
time? The Welsh AssemblyIs not prepared to set targets about | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
closing the gap because you're afraid you won't. Can't you plan the | :26:14. | :26:21. | |
economy? Look, we cannot control the economy. I don't want to be just | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
repeating myself, but we are working very hard in terms of raising skill | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
levels, for example. You should plan and you're not. You've just told me, | :26:29. | :26:34. | |
we can't plan. No, what I'm saying... You're saying that we | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
should plan to improve GDP by a certain amount a year. I think with | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
the current economic situation that we're under, as is most of the | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
western world, it's very difficult and would be a hostage to fortune if | :26:45. | :26:50. | |
we were to say we will have A, B and C in a few years. You ask why the | :26:50. | :26:53. | |
rest of the world is doing better than we are? Our responsibilities | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
are here. We're certainly looking at other areas of the world. In terms | :26:57. | :27:01. | |
of our resources we are planning and working well with industry. That is | :27:01. | :27:11. | |
my experience. 2030 offers one last chance to rid | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
ourselves of the poverty which has defined us and degraded us for a | :27:15. | :27:22. | |
century. In my opinion, for what it's worth, Wales has the potential | :27:22. | :27:28. | |
to be a successful contender in 2030. The next 20 years will be | :27:28. | :27:34. | |
critical. We will need Jessica with her brilliant inventions, her dog | :27:34. | :27:40. | |
determination of Stuart West's apprentices. Judith with her passion | :27:40. | :27:46. | |
for her students, Ian Maxted with his inventive miebd -- inventive | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
minds. Most of all we will need the leadership of the Welsh Assembly | :27:50. | :27:55. | |
Government. If they can energise the nation, make us feel it's a national | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
crusade, if they can galvanise education, give it an electric | :27:59. | :28:04. | |
shock, if they can extreme line the laborious processes, smarten up the | :28:05. | :28:08. | |
civil servants, if they can facilitate industry, find out what | :28:08. | :28:14. | |
it wants and make it happen, fund it where necessary, if they do all | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
this, Wales will reach the promised land of prosperity and devolution | :28:18. | :28:23. | |
will be the best thing that's happened to Wales in 150 years. But | :28:23. | :28:29. | |
if they don't, if they say it's not our remit, our hands are tied, we | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
have other priorities, if they play party politics, then I would say to | :28:33. | :28:39. | |
each of those 60 Assmebly Members - stand down, make way for someone | :28:39. | :28:45. | |
who's prepared to try. I would say to all of them collectively what | :28:45. | :28:50. |