First Minister Eluned Morgan has come under friendly fire over the Welsh Government's "scattergun rather than strategic” approach to international relations.
The Senedd's culture committee scrutinised Baroness Morgan about the Welsh Government's international and plans for an international investment summit which will take place at the Celtic Manor Resort and ICC Wales in December.
Lee Waters, a Labour backbencher, took the First Minister to task about a perceived move away from a focus on a globally responsible Wales towards attracting investment.
He said: “It feels to me that inward investment has become more important. And you’ve created a summit. Well, having organised lots of conferences – conferences can take a lot of energy and deliver very little, so [it’s] interesting how you measure that.”
Baroness Morgan maintained that the core priorities – to raise the nation’s profile, grow the economy and establish Wales as a globally responsible country – remain the same, saying: “I don’t think we’ve shifted at all, we’ve lent into it.”
She insisted: “I don’t think it’s been de-emphasised. You should see the work we’re doing in relation to [the] Well-being of Future Generations , we’re doing stuff in the UN.”
Baroness Morgan highlighted work in India, with the state of Maharashtra – which is home to more than 100 million people – modelling a similar law on the Welsh one.
She said: “I’ve spent a lot of time with these Indian people promoting [the] Well-being of Future Generations Act. There's a huge amount of work being done everywhere, it’s not one at the expense of another. There’s lots of different things in different places.”
Most Read
Mr Waters, a former minister, pressed the point: “You can’t have it both ways…. If you put more emphasis on one thing – there’s less emphasis on another, by definition. And your emphasis, as you’ve said, is on an international summit. What do you expect that to deliver?”
Baroness Morgan replied: “Well, we’ve got a lot of ambitions and we’re doing a lot of work on it and we’re expecting it to deliver quite a bit.”
Asked again what the summit will deliver, she said: “Well, you’ll have to wait and see because we don’t know until it’s actually happened.”
Baroness Morgan, who was previously of undermining scrutiny by earlier declining to give evidence, said she would not give chapter and verse on expectations for the summit.
She told the committee she wants conference delegates to, ideally, be at least half way through the process towards announcing investment in Wales.
Plaid Cymru’s Heledd Fychan piled on the pressure, saying: “I have to say I’m really unclear about what the answer was to Lee Waters’ question there.”
She asked: “It seems very scattergun rather than strategic – that’s my impression from the evidence I’ve just heard – how are you able to reassure me, that’s not the case?”
Don’t miss
Baroness Morgan, whose responsibilities as Frst Minister include international relations, deferred the question to her officials: Andrew Gwatkin and David Warren.
Mr Gwatkin said: “It’s not a case of us being headless, jumping from one thing to another. There is a constant and core to what we do…. but, of course, we’re a small team – we can’t adapt to everything… we can’t do everything and our budgets, similarly, are what they are.”
Baroness Morgan, who in 2020 was responsible for developing the strategy which contains 270 actions, published a 15-point delivery this year. During the meeting on June 18, she pointed to the impact of the pandemic, Brexit, war in Ukraine and US president Trump.
Alun Davies, a Labour member, called for greater accountability. He said: “What we want is to understand how the government is spending public money… to hold [the] government to account for that and that’s a fair and reasonable request to make.”
Baroness Morgan replied: “I absolutely get that, which is why we have committed over the summer: we’ll go through the 270 actions, so it’s clear and more transparent. There will be some things in there we haven’t been able to achieve because the world has changed.”
She emphasised: “Just to manage your expectations, we’ve got one person working on this,” with Mr Davies earlier joking: “I’ve been a member here for 20 years, first minister, my expectations are well managed.”