By Denis Campbell

International Business Wales (IBW), subject of a Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) expenses inquiry initiated this past summer by the Welsh Lib Dems, last month released an annual report showing Wales ranked near the bottom of the table of UK business development regions. IBW will conduct three trade missions to the United Arab Emirates nation of Dubai. The first of these trips falls on the heels of current weeklong each trade missions to China and India.

On the surface, one could argue these trips show business development ‘activity.’ But are high cost junkets the best use of increasingly limited funds? Especially when we see the WAG struggling to find £100 million pounds in savings and local councils are cutting back on education and other services?

What is the development strategy at work here? At what point does one say to IBW’s leaders, you need to target your investment and trips in a more focused manner? When does the taxpayer get more than lip service when asking what the return on this investment is and the specific businesses it attracted? And when are these executives held accountable for costly expenses and what would in the private sector be categorised as a failure?

Who within the WAG is asking if IBW should embark on three junkets in four months to a country reeling from depressed petrol prices, a Real Estate, investment and banking catastrophe or otherwise looking to investment from farther eastern nations producing goods and paying workers $1 a day or less?

Are leaders in business and government really expecting that businesses in Wales will convince those in the Emirates, China and India that Wales’ manufacturing and technology job base is cheaper, larger, smarter and better than their own? Are we somehow now generating exports of products there large enough to create massive jobs growth and business here in Wales?

One ballyhooed but amount unspecified partnership and order of photo cells to Hong Kong from Cardiff-based g24i does neither a Mideast and Orient strategy make, nor, like was mentioned in Part One, allow IBW to take credit because it is an international deal.

Indeed is no one remotely concerned about dealing with such a sensitive and proprietary new technology in a country known for its complete disregard of international intellectual property law? A country whose stated goal during the September pre G-20 meeting was their intention to invest heavily in green technology energy storage cells to dominate that market? So we’re dead level certain they would never use the g24i partnership/order to develop/steal the technology for themselves?

Deserted Desert
Dubai is literally crippled by over expansion and the current global economic, banking and real estate crises. Why send three missions there?

To his credit, the Emir articulated a great vision in the late 1980s. He knew that oil (like our coal) would not sustain the economy or educate his people beyond 2050. He had a spectacular coastline for real estate development and set about to create huge economic investments to build a broader economy. He did this by building industrial duty-free ‘ports’ and financial services opportunities of all kinds. This led to a phenomenal two decade period of economic development and expansion in his nation.

My firm was asked in the mid 90’s to help create a feasibility study for a Muslim and Arabian ‘Disney-style’ theme park to be called ‘Magic World.’ I remember seeing huge lines at the Dubai exhibits in the Frankfurt Book Fairs of 2002 and ‘03 as they unveiled a virtual media, graphic and printing duty-free ‘city’ where all commerce and export would be conducted tax-free.

They had great plans, were considered to be the most ‘moderate’ of all Muslim nations, had unlimited petro-dollars to spend and squarely aimed to become the Riviera of the Gulf.

The photo leading this essay though shows the impact of the current real estate over-building bust. Today Dubai struggles to complete their world’s tallest building. Investment has dried up in the desert so much that ex-pat investors and bankers park their top of the line Mercedes roadsters at the airport with the keys in them for repossession because they can no longer afford the lifestyle and abandoned everything heading for home.

What can IBW Wales possibly accomplish that benefits Wales with three visits to a now struggling nation that both over-promised and over-built?

Washington Dreamin’
The IBW website has a broken/incomplete link pointing to “Post-Mission Details” yet has only the daily schedule that sat on their website since long before the June ’09 week-long, 88-VIP, junket to the week-long Smithsonian Folk-Life festival in Washington, DC.

This ‘trade mission to Washington’ needs a local’s perspective as background. Having lived in greater Washington from 1990-95 and attended this and many other festivals on the National Mall, I can only tell you who the featured nations were each of those years by visiting the ‘past festivals’ tab on their website. For those scoring at home Senegal, Indonesia, Bahamas and Cape Verde were featured when I lived there. I only remember the Bahamas because a colleague invited me to a dinner where one was obliged to appear in jackets, pink shirt and regimental tie, long socks and Bermuda shorts.

My family would visit the festival for part of one afternoon and that… was that. There was no business conducted there. The Folk-Life Festival is a lot of wonderful things; centrepiece of a trade mission does not remotely spring to mind. Even the IBW working sessions featured visits with/to: NASA, the British Embassy, The Smithsonian and un-named green and entertainment industry representatives.

It seemed short on trade, investment and policy discussions. It was further surprising to note that there was not one meeting scheduled with the US Cabinet-level Commerce Department, the agency most responsible for international trade. And despite their recent problems, even The US Chamber of Commerce would have been a group to meet with. But, hey, I’m sure the National Geographic and Discovery Channel presentations were entertaining and riveting.

With as many people and businesses listed as being on this mission, where were the meetings on Capitol Hill with key-state Senators and Representative staffs? Last week unplanned in one day on The Hill, I buttoned-holed Barney Frank’s staff on the financial services committee for a progress update on Internet gaming relief, watched floor debate on healthcare reform in both Chambers and participated in a Senate press gaggle over healthcare reform.

Why with so much time to plan this junket, were IBW not meeting with local Chambers of Commerce and businesses in states with Welsh history and populations such as: Philadelphia’s Main Line (2 hours north by train), New York City (4 hours) and across Pittsburgh, Youngstown and northern Ohio?

Someone is responsible? And again, what was the return on this investment of airfare, hotels, ground transport, food and entertainment? What was sponsored and paid for by others and what was picked up by the WAG and IBW?

Time to Lead from the Front
Going back to examples from Part One, The Beacon Council in Miami did not take a trip unless all of the details were pre-set in detail by an advance team and 90%+ of all expenses were picked up either by companies in the area directly benefiting from the businesses we sought to attract or… locals wanting to support the trade mission out of a sense of civic duty and pride.

Real, professional management is needed to right this ship and convert it to a real economic development power. Government alone cannot lead in the economic development arena. It must work with the private sector and provide infrastructure help that moves at the speed of business.

Cosseted, myopic group think where one only talks and listens to oneself or a small group of like-minded individuals, often leads to full throated support of strategies destined to fail. Thinking small brings small results. Thinking too big without the talent to execute and win also creates ‘activity’ but disastrous results.

Wales can little afford either.