Leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, said a new national development agency for Wales would be at the heart of his party’s strategy to boost the competitiveness of the Welsh economy if it forms the next Welsh Government.
With the latest polls pointing to Plaid becoming the biggest party in the Senedd election next spring, Mr ap Iorwerth told a meeting of Cardiff Breakfast Club that the arms length government agency -first proposed in a Plaid economic strategy document earlier this year - would have its precise remit clarified within the first 100 days after taking office.
Speaking after his address, he said he was open-minded about the agency being called the Welsh Development Agency (WDA). The Labour administration of Rhodri Morgan abolished the arms-length WDA - which had a wide economic remit, from supporting indigenous firms to attracting inward investment, and land reclamation to property development - with its staff and functions brought under the direct control of the Welsh Government in April 2006.
The Welsh Government still holds the IP and domain rights to the WDA. After his address Mr ap Iorwerth acknowledged: " Twenty years since its abolition, it is a brand and name that resonates globally, so I am not ruling that out.”
Asked if there was a danger of creating a silo mentality between the new agency, a proposed innovation agency, and the Development Bank of Wales, he said there was potential for all three to come under one organisational umbrella, although that had yet to be determined.
A Plaid government would also have to work out how the development agency works alongside the new corporate joint committees in Wales - statutory bodies such as the the Cardiff Capital Region which had developed its own and distinct economic development strategy.
In its final year of operation, the WDA had a budget of more than £220m with a headcount of more than 1,000. Mr ap Iorwerth said the proposed new agency - which will require legislation - would have nowhere near the financial or personnel resources of the WDA, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t have a huge impact on the Welsh economy through a collaborative approach with the private and education sectors.
Plaid would also need to quickly clarify which current Welsh Government civil servants would transfer into the arms length body, and what expertise would be brought in from the private sector. One issue during the merger of the WDA into the Welsh Government was the time it took to assign new roles to WDA staff, with some on full pay and effectively at home for months awaiting redeployment options.
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Mr ap Iorwerth told his business audience: “Establishing a new development agency fit for the 21st century is not only the centrepiece of our recently published economic strategy, but is also crucial if we are to put the optimal conditions in place to take the Welsh economy forward. We need to think the 2050s and beyond and being deeply forward-thinking in our approach. The development agency has to be just that, and tapped into the world of innovation.
"This isn’t nostalgia or romanticising the WDA. It had many strengths and we want to replicate those, but it also had weaknesses that we wouldn’t want to repeat. This is also about being honest: there’s only so much a government can do directly, and we need to broaden our scope when it comes to who is on board in building a strong Welsh economy. Yes, government has considerable reach, but without expert intelligence and a sector-led approach, it will fail.”
He added:“This cannot and should not be a case of government dictating to business. We will only succeed together, in partnership.”
He said this collaborative approach needed to reach all aspects of the economy -from small traders to multinationals -as well as working alongside trade unions and the higher and further education sectors. He added:
The party leader added: "The stakes are pretty high. Fairness and ambition are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are intrinsically linked. Believing in the redistribution of wealth and a supportive state, while simultaneously advocating for successful enterprise, is not an either or. Plaid Cymru is pro-business.”
While unable to give details at this stage on the budget that could be allocated to a new agency - or its set-up costs - he said: “I’m not going to surprise you by saying we’re not in a time where we can say, ‘here’s masses of money we’re throwing at this,’ because that’s not where we are. So it is thinking differently and innovatively.
"It is absolutely about bringing in business expertise. And we’re talking about a body at arm’s length from government, which allows it to have, woven in from the start, business expertise, acumen and innovation - the sort of fleet-of-foot nature of business as opposed to what can be lethargic in government. You build that over time, but it is very different to the old WDA. It’s a statement of intent, and having something on which we can hang our ambitions and clearly portray what we want to do with the Welsh economy can be very important.
"We are also looking at how exactly it fits with the Development Bank of Wales. We’re not going into the election saying, ‘;this is the precise model,’ but one of the things we will want to do in government straightaway, as part of a 100-day plan, is tease out how these models can be developed. We know the principle. and as a pragmatist, we will weigh up option - but in a way that allows us to move quickly, as we see this as a real priority in giving impetus to what we want to achieve with the Welsh economy.”