With ASKAR SHEIBANI
Chair DBF & CEO, Comtek Network UK Ltd
The Governments have been busy with urgent business support. Now is the time to implement long-term, sustainable investment.
Is the chancellor's recent Job Support Scheme enough to help the economy to sail through the second wave of coronavirus?
Chancellor Rishi Sunak came up with some very good support schemes, albeit, I believe, he should have completely adopted the German Short-Term Work Scheme called Kurzarbeit.
I have been using the Kurzarbeit scheme in my German office and can see how well it works. It is much cheaper than furlough, it is always for at least for 12 months, it saves skilled jobs and viable good businesses. It is there to use whenever a business is going through a difficult period and is flexible enough to pull workers in and out of work as needed until the business is again secure.
In addition, the government support in payment of their wages is generous, especially to those with children. Businesses are able to put in place plans for a bounce back knowing that the support is there when they need it. This is the very reason I have been urging the government to introduce the same scheme in the UK. It is far cheaper than supporting unemployment and retraining.
The Chancellor has again come up with some kind of temporary cushioning solutions to prevent a hard cliff-edge crash. However, we have to accept that this range of temporary support cannot go on forever. Both the UK and Welsh Governments must come up with a long-term industrial strategy taking into account that we will be very likely coexisting with this virus for many years.
As far as North Wales is concerned, other than just concentrating in tackling the symptoms of the economic and unemployment crises, we also need to dive into making fundamental changes to our approach in establishing a resilient economy to be able to withstand any future pressure from global economic turmoil. To create a strong resilient economy both the UK and Welsh Governments must work together to implement the following:
1. Radical overhaul of all outdated governmental bureaucracies with those on the ground providing the advice. Simplification of all rules and regulations would not cost money but would help businesses to transact much faster. For an example, issuing an export licence should not take more than a week. At the moment it can take sometimes over a year for the Department for International Trade to issue an export licence. These types of bureaucratic delays destroy the UK's export business. If we crash out of the EU without a deal then we may be likely to see the same chaos when exporting goods to Europe.
2. Both Governments should move fast to borrow money while it is cheap and invest as much as possible to upgrade North Wales's infrastructure such as digital. According to the UK government "for every £1 the government is investing in broadband, the UK economy will benefit by £20" https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-benefits-of-broadband. This is an amazing Return on Investment. We have been talking about this for many years, but the UK still lays pitifully behind the rest of Europe for broadband connectivity.
Full Fibre Gigabit speed broadband and 5G wireless technology infrastructure will transform our economy and communities. Delay will severely impact the already desperate economic outlook for the UK.
3. Establish a digitally based efficient health care system, so it can utilise technology to diagnose and treat with speed, hence keeping the workforce fit and healthy.
4. Invest generously in training, apprenticeship and education for our young people in technology, engineering and science to be ready to close the skills gap. Provide proper long-term work-based training leading to qualifications and skills which will sustain them for years to come.
5. Invest in renewable energy such as tidal energy, wind turbine and solar panel farms.
6. Overhaul the outdated Business Rates which are killing our town centres.
The above are some of the infrastructure investment both the UK and the Welsh Governments must implement with speed. These types of investment will create thousands of quality jobs and will make North Wales a great place for businesses to invest and grow.
We have many ready-to-go projects prepared by the North Wales Economic Ambition Board which could be implemented tomorrow if the funds were available from the Governments.
The business community is ready to collaborate with all of our North Wales MPs and MSs but especially those who would naturally have a great influence on the UK and Welsh Governments to lobby and encourage large infrastructure investment in North Wales.
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