Ahead of Wales’ largest export conferences – Explore Export Wales - in Cardiff tomorrow and Llandudno next Thursday Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, Rebecca Evans, lays out her vision for driving growth of exports across the Welsh SME landscape, supporting improved productivity and economic growth.

A healthy economy is an exporting economy. And there’s no doubt that exporting is crucial to the Welsh economy. Welsh goods and services exports make up around 37.1% of our GDP, that’s higher than England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where goods and services exports make up 30.4%, 34.5% and 31.4% respectively.

And when it comes to exporting, research shows us that businesses that export achieve higher productivity levels than those that don’t. In fact, we know that businesses that export goods are around 21% more productive than businesses that record no international goods trade. It’s statistics like this that underline just how crucial our exporters are as a key driver of sustainable economic growth.

No doubt you’ve been reading and hearing a lot about productivity of late. It’s a constant drumbeat across the political and media spectrum. And there’s a reason........

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