NO STRANGER to controversy, Professor Dylan Jones-Evans maintained his reputation at the M4 Business Network by demanding that the award of Welsh public sector contracts to London companies be halted immediately.

The professor had read about Broadband Wales' decision to award a £150,000 PR contract to London firm.

Comparing Wales to a genuine "Celtic tiger" economy - Ireland - he said: "Can you imagine Dublin-based firms being overlooked by the Irish government for such a contract? This kind of thing has got to stop right now."

Prof Jones-Evans is professor of entrepreneurship at the Wrexham-based North East Wales Institute and uses this as a platform from which to critique many aspects of the Welsh economy.

He pointed to the scale of public procurement in Wales - £4bn per annum - and pointed out that two-thirds of this was being spent with firms based outside of Wales.

The professor said procurement dwarfed the amount spent on grants and rather than worry about the ambivalence of Wales' "grant culture" we should concentrate on channelling public contracts to indigenous firms.

He called it "developing the ability of the public sector to serve the economy better."

The professor is probably best-known as a newspaper columnist and the organiser of annual index of the 50 fastest-growing Welsh companies.

As he pointed out, although a "gog" (resident of North Wales) he's no stranger to Newport, as his wife comes from Rogerstone. And he had particularly warm feelings towards two Newport businesses - the King Balti on Corporation Road and the Handpost on Risca Road.

Before giving a snapshot of how he saw the Welsh economy, the professor admitted his own fallibility as a critic. He cited the Irish writer Brendan Behan on critics who said (roughly): "They know how it's done, they see it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves."

He said the most recent employment statistics appeared to indicate that Wales' employment rise had run its course. "There were 14,000 less employed last month when compared to the same time last year and a marked decline in the number of part-time jobs."

Since 2001 one third of all jobs created have been part-time and the professor wondered if this had something to do with the numbers of students working their way through college and university courses.

"Unfortunately the concept of the 'full time student' hardly exists anymore."

The professor was concerned about the age profile of Wales' working population. "Since 2001 the over-50s have accounted for 47 per cent of all increases in employment. "This has serious implications for the so-called knowledge economy."

Professor Jones-Evans believes that although Wales' immigration/ emigration figure are stable (in 2001 50,000 left the country and 62,000 entered) we are losing the best brains and replacing them with lesser-skilled individuals.

"For a knowledge economy to work you need to hang on to your highly-skilled 25-34-year-olds. Although the Assembly doesn't think this is a problem Europe does as many of its top people are relocating to the US."

On this note, the professor praised the University of Wales Newport "for its vision in the development of new campuses."

The economically inactive in Wales is another topic keeping the professor awake at night. He said: "Last month there were 448,000 economically inactive people in Wales of working age and this figure was 36,000 greater than the same time last year.

"The Assembly and UK government should be very concerned about this but seem to be doing absolutely nothing about it."

Bizarrely, when you break down the overall figure, the numbers of over-50s who are inactive actually declined, while those aged 18-24 increased!

Seventy-eight per cent of the inactive are not seeking a job.

The professor said: "This is an issue which is not just economic but cuts across health, education, social justice and even sport. Why doesn't the government make it one of its key priorities?"

Within the private sector the professor is concerned about the UK's productivity which he regards as the key indicator of economic health. He cited a recent Economic and Social Research Council report which found UK productivity to be 20 per cent lower than that of France and Germany and 40 per cent lower than the US.

"This situation is a result of higher investment and higher skills in both Europe and the US."

The UK is particularly deficient in interim skills (trades and technician-level workers) and management skills.

"We should not forget that although ELWa is beleaguered the work it does is as important as that of the WDA. Skills will make or break economies of the future."