Welsh Government ‘has not learned lessons from top uni’
THE Welsh Government has “failed to capitalise” on a £165,000 entrepreneurship scheme run by one of the world’s leading universities, according to a Tory AM.
In 2015 the then Economy Minister, Edwina Hart, announced that she had selected a panel of experts to represent Wales in a global initiative led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP) spans two years and is designed to boost economic growth and job creation through “innovation-driven entrepreneurship”.
Ms Hart called the link-up a “great opportunity” to work with MIT to develop a strategy to meet these aims.
More than two years later and with Wales’ participation in the scheme now at an end, Russell George, the Welsh Conservatives’ Shadow Economy Secretary, claims that unlike their counterparts in Scotland, the Welsh Government has “little if anything tangible” to show for its participation in REAP.
Upon its completion of REAP in 2014 – having been among the first cohort to join in 2012 – the Scottish Government published a 54-page report containing action points already being implemented by a range of organisations to advance the Scottish economy.
The report has also been influential in the creation of a new body created by Scottish Government – the South of Scotland Enterprise Agency – established to help promote entrepreneurship in that part of Scotland.
Conversely, claims Mr George, the Welsh Government has yet to publish a new entrepreneurship strategy informed by its involvement in REAP, though has produced a website, which the Tory AM called “flash but bewildering”.
Mr George said: “Like an expensive piece of cutting-edge gym equipment, Welsh Labour ministers enthusiastically ploughed hundreds of thousands into this scheme, only to lose interest soon afterwards.
“Consequently, the taxpaying public now has little if anything tangible to show for the Welsh Government’s investment of its money, except for a flash-but-bewildering website which can best be described as a glorified news-gathering platform.
“They have simply failed to capitalise on the expertise of the world’s best university and have failed to kick-start the economy, which continues to lag woefully behind the rest of the UK.”
A Welsh Government spokesman responded: “These claims lack substance, conveniently overlook the facts and the suggestion that this body of work is merely a ‘flash-butbewildering’ website is both shortsighted and incredibly insulting.”
In October 2015 Wales joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Regional. The spokesman added: “REAP provided us with an opportunity to connect an agile, focused team of successful business leaders and academics from across Wales to work with MIT and the wider REAP community to develop a strategy specifically for Wales that puts innovation-driven entrepreneurship (IDE) at the heart of our focus to create jobs and boost the economy.
“Furthermore, as a direct result of Wales’ participation in REAP and working with a number of other stakeholders, we launched BeTheSpark in June this year. BeTheSpark is a Wales-wide movement supported by more than 300 business leaders from across five connected stakeholder groups. It aims to make visible opportunities in Wales to unlock and drive greater collaboration between entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, risk capital, academia and government and to support the creation of more homegrown profitable businesses.
“At the launch event more than 225 pledges were made by delegates from the five stakeholder groups, who committed to take action. These included the creation of Open Spaces to stimulate entrepreneurship throughout Wales, mentoring for fledgling and growth businesses, embedding entrepreneurship across all levels of education, and hosting ideas ‘hackathons’ to identify solutions to shared business problems.”