By ASKAR SHEIBANI,

CEO Comtek Network Systems UK Ltd and chair DBF

Despite all the doom and gloom that was forecasted by some economic forecasting gurus, the outlook turned out to be somewhat better than expected.

The expected recession in the UK didn’t materialise, as there was modest growth. The government managed to stabilise the financial market leading to an increase in the value of the pound from near collapse.

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Mild winter reduced energy consumption and the sharp reduction in the price of wholesale gas. Inflation has reached its peak and is expected to go down by the end of the year. China’s U-turn in their rigid policy of zero covid has dramatically improved the optimism in stronger international trade and tourism.

North Wales businesses, especially in manufacturing and export, have been doing well and expected a strong rebound in 2023.

Speaking to many businesses in North Wales; the biggest challenges for them are:

• Severe shortages in the workforce which is causing a bottleneck in their outputs and productivity.

• Serving the debt, which they had no choice but to undertake during the pandemic is affecting their cash flow.

• Brexit bureaucracy and its associated costs in trading with the same companies as we did before.

• The outdated draconian business rate tax.

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The UK government can, if it wishes, deal with the skills shortages as a short-term measure while investing in long-term apprenticeship programmes by implementing the following policies:

• There are about 150,000 asylum seekers in detention centres and some in hotels costing the taxpayers nearly £10M a day. Unfortunately, they are not allowed to work and help our economy and pay taxes. There are lots of highly skilled people among asylum seekers which will help to reduce the skills gap. The government can, with a stroke of the pen, make these skilled, willing-to-work people available for businesses to access.

• Renegotiate the BREXIT deal and agree on sensible policies such as easy access to European skilled workers and reduction in bureaucracy regarding trade.

• Government makes it almost impossible to recruit skilled people from oversea by charging the businesses and applicants thousands of pounds. Their rigid policy of issuing work visas prolongs the recruitment process by over six months. The UK government must streamline and sharpen this process.

• Allow businesses to repay their Corona Virus loans as interest-only payments for the next two years. This will assist their cash flow.

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The above common-sense ideas not only will reduce the UK government's costs it will benefit businesses and improve productivity.

The local businesses in North Wales are once again proving their resilience and determination to buck the trend. They are working hard to sell their services and products all over the world.

They only need some common sense support from our government to make our regional economy far more successful.