INWARD/OUTWARD INVESTMENT IN SCOTLAND
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
122. Our main conclusions and recommendations are
as follows:
All transport infrastructure is critical to the task
of improving economic development and we therefore recommend that
the relevant bodies both at the UK and Scottish level give these
transport issues higher priority. (Paragraph 12)
We believe that in future it will be necessary for
Locate in Scotland, while retaining a small, highly-focused core
team to develop long-term relationships with potential inward
investors and to compete successfully for new greenfield projects,
to acquire greater business knowledge and acumen to understand
multinational networks and build projects and alliances, and that
it will need to work more closely with private sector teams and
consultancies. We recommend that Locate in Scotland concentrate
on these aspects of its approach. (Paragraph 41)
We recommend that the Scottish Parliament give serious
consideration to merging Locate in Scotland and STI. (Paragraph
43)
We received the strong impression from talking to
Locate in Scotland and STI staff in post in the USA that additional
resources would pay dividends in terms of additional investment
into Scotland and more trading opportunities for Scottish firms
and we therefore recommend that more funds should be made available
to support these bodies, whether or not they are merged. (Paragraph
44)
It is clear that the system of financial assistance
to industry should be reorganised to put more emphasis on attracting
projects of high value and we recommend accordingly. (Paragraph
57)
There is great scope for improving the competitiveness
of Scottish companies as suppliers to inward investors. (Paragraph
65)
We believe that transparency informs public policy
making and recommend that the concordats should ensure that the
figures for the total assistance used to attract each project
are subsequently published. (Paragraph 78)
We were glad to learn that Scottish Enterprise are
already working on more helpful ways of measuring the success
of assisted projects and we recommend that this continue. (Paragraph
81)
We recommend that Scottish Enterprise provide a central
service to advise indigenous firms seeking advice or assistance.
(Paragraph 92)
We recommend that the agencies involved will continue
to attach the highest importance to aftercare. (Paragraph 109)
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