The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Positive results from ear-bending London trip
The Scottish Chamber Network’s London Business Visit is the annual opportunity for network leaders and members to scope out promising business links in the capital, and to bend the ear of MPs and officials.
This year’s three-day trip, involving a record 50 businesses took place days before the Chancellor unveiled his cautiously positive Spring Statement.
It included constructive engagements at CBRE, Coca Cola, Royal Bank of Scotland and the London Stock Exchange, along with ministerial meetings that yielded commitments from the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Scotland Office and Number 10, to liaise directly and proactively with the Scottish Chambers Network on matters affecting business conditions in Scotland.
High on the list was the government’s industrial strategy, encouragingly described as “not the top-down state direction of previous eras, but a genuine partnership between business and government, in which implementation and delivery is the responsibility of the former.”
We like the sound of that, and also the Prime Minister’s own acknowledgement of the need for “partnership between government and the private sector” to address some of the UK’s intractable challenges.
After years of hearing the word “partnership” being invoked somewhat vaguely, SCC has a clear idea of what it means – or should mean.
The Chamber Network sees the UK Government’s industrial strategy as an opportunity to be more closely engaged with the private sector and in some areas to lead implementation, ensuring it is joined up with Scottish Government objectives and policies, avoiding fragmentation and duplication.
Other important partnership issues include the maximisation of benefits from the proposed city deals, and our drive to increase Scottish exports in tandem with the Department for International Trade (DIT), as well as the Scottish Government agencies.
SCC Network is now leading the way on the internationalisation of Scottish business, with our business mission in April to Shandong Province in China an example of the network’s drive to promote international B2B links.
In the past month alone, we have conducted market visits such as Glasgow Chamber to Manhattan and Lochaber Chamber to Nova Scotia.
The announcement of a direct air link between Edinburgh and Beijing, was a triumph of partnership working between Edinburgh Airport, the wider business community, and the Westminster and Scottish Governments.
Game-changing deals like this show what can be achieved by partnership.
While in London, we made the case for closer cooperation between the DIT and Scottish Government agencies and have since called for the appointment of a cabinet-level export champion in the latter.
We do not see Brexit as a cue for extended political hand-wringing, but as a spur to Scottish businesses to get out into the world as exemplary Scottish export champions already are.