Scotland's Economy

Scotland Week – Houston

April 11, 2012 by Fergus Ewing MSP No Comments | Category Business

Scotland Week is a huge opportunity to promote our businesses in one of the world’s largest economies and that’s what I’ll be doing over the next week with the Chief Executive of SDI Anne MacColl – showing North America that Scotland is open for business.

In Houston yesterday I met some of the cities biggest names in oil and gas and they have all been very interested to hear what Scotland can offer as an investment location. There are already strong links between the Scotland and Houston in this sector and we can capitalise to help strengthen economic growth.

But it is not all about attracting American businesses to Scotland. Internationalisation has a large part to play in our future economic prospects and Scottish Development International is taking action on this front too.

In the evening I hosted a reception for some of the incubator companies that SDI are helping set-up in the city. There are 6 of them at the moment and they too are based in oil and gas. They range from those that make living quarters for rigs to offshore management firms but they all have ambition and a desire to expand in common.

SDI offers a wide range of support to these businesses and I was impressed to hear to how this is tailored to meet individual needs. Their strategic business development support, offers connections across the Americas, creating an international network for Scots in the oil and gas industry. This is further strengthened by the GlobalScots network which helps promote Scottish Business interests across the world.

Today I’m in Calgary – making more connections that could lead to new jobs and investment in Scotland.

Tags: economic growth, Houston, oil and gas, Scotland Week, Scottish Development International, SDI

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