Yesterday's report from Cardiff Business School: Selling Wales: the Role of Agencies in Attracting Inward Investment highlights the decline in Wales as a destination for inward investment. This occurred especially after the abolition of the Welsh Development Agency (WDA) in 2006 when the WDA was effectively rolled into the civil service under the Welsh Assembly.
The basic inward investment story is shown here:
|
Percentage of UK new inward investment projects (excluding London) |
|||
|
Rank 2005-10 |
Area |
Average % |
Rank 2003-04 and average % |
|
1 |
Scotland |
9% |
1 (8.5%) |
|
2 |
North west England |
6.8% |
3 (6.5%) |
|
3 |
West Midlands |
5% |
4 (4.5%) |
|
4 |
Northern Ireland |
4.3% |
5 (4%) |
|
5 |
North east England |
3.7% |
6 (3.5%) |
|
6 |
Yorkshire and Humber |
3.7% |
9 (2%) |
|
7 |
East Anglia |
3.7% |
8 (2.5%) |
|
8 |
East Midlands |
3.5% |
8 (3.5%) |
|
9 |
Wales |
3.5% |
2 (7.5%) |
|
10 |
South west England |
3.3% |
6 (3%) |
Source: UKTI and FDI Markets ™ from the Financial Times
Wales' share of new UK inward investment projects excluding London has dropped from an average of 7.5% in 2003-04 to 3.5% in 2005-10, a drop in the UK 'regional' rankings from 2nd to 9th.
One respondent surveyed in the Report noted the contrast with Scotland
Over the last three years we have seen the SDI [Scottish Development International] ramp up their overseas work, they have a very clear goal of where they want to be and how they want to get there, and it seems to me that this pressure has possibly caused a squeeze on some of the targets we originally had. IBW [International Business Wales] could not compete with them, it is too slow, everything has to be double checked and put through too many people's desks.
The superior performance of Scotland also seems to be evident in the overall GDP per head statistics as this chart shows:
And, while Scotland has been on an upward track since 2000, while Wales has been on a downward track since 1997, there is a hint of a widening of the gap after 2006.
We must be careful of the logical fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc but I think we should feel cheerful in Scotland that we have the professional input to economic development provided by Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International.
Would those politicians agitating for the abolition of Scottish Enterprise in 2007 and at last year's election please admit that they might have been wrong!
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