Scotland's Economy

  • Why Cocoa Ooze is sweet on Small Business Saturday

    3rd December 2015 by

    Small Business Saturday is a grassroots campaign which highlights small business success and encourages consumers to ‘shop local’ and support small businesses in their communities. It takes place on the first shopping Saturday in December each year, but aims to have a lasting impact on small businesses like my own – bespoke chocolate company Cocoa...

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  • Business tourism industry gathers in Edinburgh

    1st December 2015 by

    As a growing and vital contributor to the Scottish economy, hundreds of members of Scotland’s business tourism community will today gather in Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms for a major industry event. Featuring workshops, networking opportunities and talks from industry experts, the Business Tourism Scotland Conference 2015 will provide motivation, inspiration and practical tips for delegates. Business...

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  • Don’t get conned out of Christmas

    30th November 2015 by

    At this time of year as we start to focus on Christmas, what is uppermost in your thoughts for this festive season? Catching up with family and friends? Giving and receiving gifts? Doing the Christmas shopping? A new gadget? Or maybe either celebrating away from home or just getting away from it all. These are...

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  • Austerity continues as Chancellor imposes 6% cut

    25th November 2015 by

    The Scottish Government will see a real terms reduction of almost 6 per cent in the funding for day to day public services over the next four years, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said today. Speaking after the Comprehensive Spending Review was announced by the Chancellor, the DFM condemned the continued “austerity of choice” but...

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  • HM, Mr Clooney and the Scottish Business Pledge

    24th November 2015 by

    I doubt that I’ll ever again have cause to mention Harper Macleod and George Clooney in the same sentence. The reason I can is that my firm was fortunate enough to win the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award at last week’s Scottish Business Awards – whose guest speaker brought a dash of Clooney-mania to the...

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  • Scotland’s first Cyber Resilience Strategy

    20th November 2015 by

    Wherever there’s a yin there’s a yang. It’s always been that way with new business opportunity and so it is with the digital opportunity now open to Scotland and the counter balance of cyber threat. The good news is that digital opportunity, if grasped well and with an understanding of what that threat looks like,...

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  • Veterans mean business

    18th November 2015 by

    To mark Global Entrepreneurship Week, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has met and heard the stories of ex-service personnel who have set up in business since re-entering civilian life. Supported by X Forces – a social enterprise that nurtures entrepreneurial ambition in the UK military community – the businesses produce innovative products and provide new...

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  • Global Entrepreneurship Week is Go

    16th November 2015 by

    Today marks the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week, a chance to celebrate innovation and job creation. Our ambition is to make Scotland a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation, bringing new ideas to life and growing the economy in a way that benefits everyone in society. Our approach to unlock Scotland’s huge entrepreneurial potential is Scotland...

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  • Have your say on our cities

    22nd October 2015 by

    Digital technologies are transforming our lives. The ways in which we live, work and interact with one another – socially and economically – are changing fast. The Scottish Government is fully committed to building a strong digital economy, future proofed infrastructure, high quality digital public services and a society whose citizens are equipped with the...

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  • Scottish Steel can still have a future

    21st October 2015 by

    For decades, there wasn’t a family in Scotland’s industrial heartlands who didn’t know a steel worker. The manufacture and processing of steel was part of the backbone of our economy. The 1980s and 1990s, of course, changed that. Lanarkshire was badly hit, as Gartcosh closed in 1986 then Ravenscraig in 1992. Today we all stand...

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