Welsh independence has ‘economic merits’, says global IT firm CEO

Welsh independence has “economic merits”, according to the CEO of a global IT firm.

Askar Sheibani, the boss of Comtek Group, which has its HQ in Deeside, believes it would be wrong to “dismiss” the idea of an independent Wales.

He suggested that smaller nations such as Norway and Iceland “concentrate their economic growth on the wellbeing of their populations” and said that Wales could do something similar.

The IT and telecoms repair service entrepreneur argued because of this they had better education systems, fewer disadvantaged people, higher life expectancy, and that they are better governed.

The founder and Chair of Deeside Business Forum, who started his business in a garden shed, added that smaller nations “don’t normally get involved in wars and do not spend a massive amount of taxpayers’ money on military hardware”.

Sheibani is an ‘Entrepreneurial Champion’ for the Welsh Government, helping it promote entrepreneurship and business start-ups in Wales, and has been business advisor to the Secretary of State for Wales as well as other UK Government ministers.

His Comtek Group now has offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Deeside, Reading, and Belfast and has also expanded to Silicon Valley in the USA through the acquisition of Sorrento Networks a leading telecoms, R&D, and manufacturing company.

‘Wellbeing’ 

In a column in The Leader, he wrote: “Small nations such as Norway or Ireland concentrate their economic growth on the wellbeing of their populations.

“They normally have far better education systems and far fewer disadvantaged people.

“They don’t normally get involved in wars and do not spend a massive amount of taxpayers’ money on military hardware such as large aircraft carriers, nuclear weapons and fleets of submarines.

“Countries such as Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland, unlike countries such as the UK, France, Russia and the USA, very rarely get involved in other nations’ affairs.

“These small peaceful countries have happier, more advanced societies and the life expectancy in their nations is much higher. Even with the old, outdated economic indicators, their GDP still ranks very high.

“What we can learn from this is that if countries like Scotland or Wales run their economy along the lines of that of the Republic of Ireland and Iceland, they can create prosperous nations achieving similar results to the small advanced nations mentioned above.

“I believe all the research demonstrates that if small nations are better governed and their governments are more in tune with their citizens’ needs, they can achieve great economic results.

“Wales has great natural resources. It has only three million population to take care of. It is strong in manufacturing, tourism, multi-media and has great ports that are open to global trade.

“I believe it would be wrong to totally dismiss the idea of an independent Wales or Scotland as a naive and ill-thought fantasy without any economic merits.”