Over on Wales Home, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Kirsty Williams sets out her vision for how we develop a stronger Welsh economy:
But as well as facilitating the entrepreneurialism of the Welsh people, we must better protect and enhance the structural, environmental and cultural capital which underpins our economy. It is the health of our nation, in the broadest sense, that will ensure better times are ahead. So we must better capitalise on the investments we already make in people, capturing more of the talent and expertise that comes from, and comes to Wales. If Wales is a great place to study, there’s no reason we can’t provide a great place to do business. The two sectors – educational and economic – should be given every opportunity to work together. Wales has 17% more university students per head than England, providing Wales with a huge pool of talented graduates. Unfortunately, many of these graduates leave Wales because there are not enough high-skilled, well-paid jobs to keep them here. Our proposals to connect designated economic opportunity areas with existing research centres seek to plug the brain drain.
Likewise our cultural capital must be better harnessed. There are already schemes to promote Wales as a tourist destination and to promote traditional Welsh products (like food and drink) abroad. We can go much further in making sure that what we make and offer here is sold overseas. Small nations, with rich cultural heritage can succeed if they show confidence and ambition, as many of our European neighbours have.
Promotion of the Welsh language is central to reaffirming our cultural confidence, providing a good business case to back up the moral case for protecting and nurturing the language. We should also think radically about our capacity to promote other languages – indeed our desired bilingualism could so easily be framed within an effort towards multilingualism, bringing all the benefits an outward-looking nation enjoys. A wider effort to bring economic education back into the classroom would do little harm, in this regard.
Read more here.
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