Scotland’s investment attraction
THERE has been some hugely encouraging economic news over the past few days which we should all be pleased about.
The latest survey by independent analysts Ernst & Young shows Scotland continues to punch well above its weight when it comes to attracting international investment.
Not only has Scotland retained its position as the top location in the UK outside London for foreign direct investment but the number of investment projects continues to increase.
For the second year in a row, we’ve attracted more projects than ever before.
Looking specifically at research and development projects, Scotland actually beats London and is top in the UK.
Our three biggest cities – Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen – are all represented in the UK top 10.
Remarkably, more than one in 50 of the projects across the whole of Europe are based here in Scotland.
In terms of jobs created, the latest tranche of investment is very much at the high-value end of the market, which is also encouraging in terms of longer term economic growth.
The figures show that as a country, we are very much open for business.
And it’s testament to the underlying strengths of the Scottish economy.
It also totally demolishes the continued claims from some politicians that the prospect of Scotland becoming independent is somehow deterring investment.
This is a strong record that I intend to build on over the next few years.