The foundational economy must be well-supported in order for inward investment to Wales’ priority sectors to be a success, a Cardiff business leader has said.
Carolyn Brownell, Executive Director of Business Improvement District FOR Cardiff, called for the Welsh Government to ensure that sectors such as retail and hospitality are supported to thrive.
Speaking to Business News Wales at the CBI annual lunch, where she participated in a panel discussion with First Minister Eluned Morgan, Carolyn said:
“I understand and I admire Welsh Government's ambition around those priority sectors. However, if the foundation economy isn't thriving, then actually these new businesses in sectors that are coming in won't flourish.
“I read a survey recently that said 37% of businesses are confident that actually that they will be able to kind of overcome the challenges they're currently facing. However, within that survey it also said 57% of them said their biggest challenge was cost. Now, that's not particularly surprising.
“But it means that when we're having these wider ambitions for Wales as this mega influencer globally, if your standard businesses aren't able to afford to run and are closing, particularly with hospitality and retail, then actually you're not going to have the breadth of offering for employability that any city or country needs.”
The First Minister told the event that priority sectors including natural resources, renewable energy, digital, creative, compound semi conductors and life sciences were areas where Wales could attract investment.
Carolyn asked the First Minister to consider reform of business rates, and also called for more priority to be given to Cardiff for investment.
She said that whilst she fully appreciated that other areas of Wales were in need of support, there was often a misconception that the capital received far more attention and funding than is actually the case.
“You can't look at Wales without considering the epicentre of it that is Cardiff,” said Carolyn. “It has to have more investment as a capital city, and that doesn't happen to the level that it should at the moment.
“If Cardiff flourishes, Wales flourishes.”
BIDs across Wales, including in Cardiff, can be a valuable source of information for government and for opposition parties, particularly in the run-up to next year’s Senedd elections, said Carolyn.
“The BIDs across Wales represent thousands and thousands of businesses,” she said. “We're going to have a lot of intelligence and data from our 800 members in Cardiff over the next few months about really what needs to happen.
“It's so important to be able to hear from business about what they need directly, so that the appropriate resource can be put in place, and that can only come by having genuine, authentic partnerships.”
