Bosch looks set to join the hundreds of other multi-nationals which have left Wales in search of cheaper locations in Hungary, Poland, Eastern Germany, etc taking with it hundreds more jobs. This is of course part of the EU dream of the free movement of goods and services across borders and supposedly how the EU will increase its competitiveness. Losing more and more jobs (and output) affects Wales’s employment rate and GVA, and so – right on cue – the EU will come to Wales’s rescue with bags of cash, trying to help Wales to overcome its problems. Meanwhile the biggest of all borne by the people who lose their jobs, and by the Assembly and UK government who are left to pick up the pieces via welfare benefits, healthcare costs etc.
It is surely time to question the merits of a ’single market’ where low costs in new member states are simply leaching manufacturing out of other disadvantaged areas. I don’t know what the answer is but MEPs from Wales and other (former) industrial areas in the UK need to be thinking about this and developing some firm proposals.
marc jones 11:26 am on 8 October, 2009 Permalink
How about an EU-wide minimum wage? That’s something all trade unionists and progressives would support to ensure that there is no undercutting of wages. It will raise standards of living in the poorer parts of the EU, probably reduce the migration of labour and certainly reduce the migration of capital within the EU.
The alternative that Victoria alludes to is protectionism.
Dr. Christopher Wood 4:03 pm on 8 October, 2009 Permalink
But that is what Wales did, marketed itself as a low wage docile work-force. So a lot of inward investment came to Wales to exploit the low wage docile work-force. Now we complain when new member states market themselves on the same basis undercutting Wales, and we call that “leaching”. Sorry, but we did that for years. It is time to face reality: as a nation Wales is not facing up to the reality that it needs to up its game and exploit its #1 asset.
We hear lots of talk about WAG promoting interaction between academia and the private sector. But the stats speak differently – the registered patent rate on Welsh discoveries remains pathetically low.
Instead of blaming the underperforming Welsh economy on ‘leaching’, how about looking inward and seeking solutions well within our grasp?
Economic development is within the purview of the WAG; WAG has control over grants paid via the HEFCW – WAG should start to award grants based on expected results and then on actual results – reward research groups that bring wealth and jobs to Wales by proportioning the grants paid out (e.g., 80% on research spend, 20% on IP protection wherein the 20% is returned to HEFCW if it is not spent on IP protection.
We have to stop the IP Bleed or face continuing decline in the Welsh economy.
Wales is giving away its economic future to other nations. Wales is a small nation – a few patents on breakthrough technology can make a world of difference.