APPENDICES TO THE MINUTES OF EVIDENCE
Memorandum submitted by Dumfries and Galloway
Council (8.5.98)
SCOTTISH AFFAIRS COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO INWARD
AND OUTWARD INVESTMENT
I refer to the decision by the Scottish Affairs
Committee to launch an Inquiry into Inward and Outward Investment
in Scotland. I understand the Committee has invited written evidence
in connection with this Inquiry and that this evidence should
be sent to you by Monday 11 May.
Dumfries and Galloway Council welcomes the Inquiry,
while recognising the highly successful track record of Scotland
in attracting inward investment in recent years.
One consequence of that success has been to
make large areas of the Scottish economy highly vulnerable to
changing conditions within other national economies. The Council
believes that there must in the future be increasing emphasis
on attracting inward investment which has a strong match to the
skills and other resources which Scotland can offer and can readily
be integrated into the existing structures of industry.
The Council would like to see a shift in emphasis
towards a Scotland-wide approach to inward investment which will
build on the inherent strengths of the various areas of Scotland
and in particular benefit peripheral regions which have had relatively
little gain from earlier inward investment programmes.
Dumfries and Galloway is very much aware of
the strong competition for inward investment which comes from
our near neighbours in Northern Ireland and in the Republic. The
Inquiry should examine the likely impact on future inward investment
programmes of the increasingly restrictive State Aids regime,
and the changes to European Structural Funds post 1999.
Within this context, there may be a growing
case for a shift in the balance of economic development spending
towards indigenous companies with growth potential.
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