Scotland's Economy

  • Swinney visits Samsung in Korea

    19th April 2012 by

    Daylight on Geoje Island in Korea revealed an amazing sight - the Samsung shipyards. It is hard to convey how overwhelming is their presence. In one dry dock, the size of six football pitches, four container vessels were under construction. And that was just one relatively small part of the site.

    Read more

  • Exploring new opportunities in Osaka

    18th April 2012 by

    The third and final day of the Japan leg of my trip started with a call to Rolto, an existing investor in Scotland who own Mentholatum in East Kilbride. We talked over the expansion of the company's product range and will work with them to try to make the most of this opportunity in Scotland.

    Read more

  • Scottish produce top of the menu in Japan

    17th April 2012 by

    An early start to day two of my Japan visit and the focus continues to be on Scotland's growth industries. Over lunchtime, Scottish Development International put together an excellent event to showcase Scotland's wonderful food and drink - one of our largest export successes.

    Read more

  • Doing business in Japan

    17th April 2012 by

    I am writing this at the end of my first full day of meetings and visits in Japan with the team from Scottish Development International. In addition to a broad knowledge of the opportunities in the Japanese economy, they have developed real strength in the various sectors that matter to us; energy, life sciences, food and drink, textiles and working with our universities.

    Read more

  • Scotland Week – New York

    14th April 2012 by

    I had a very productive meeting today in New York with Renewable Resources Ltd, a Scottish company specialising in solar technology, which has announced that is expanding into US markets. The welcome news comes as part of Scotland Week events and I was only too pleased to hear about the plans from their Chief Exceutive Paul Gribben.

    Read more

  • Scotland Week – Calgary

    13th April 2012 by

    My Scotland Week engagements have now taken me onto Calgary where I am meeting a range of companies with a focus on energy, especially oil and gas. The connections with the North Sea are strong and we can build on these to bring similarly impressive results for more of our key industry sectors such as tourism and food and drink.

    Read more

  • Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s new Operating Plan

    11th April 2012 by

    In the midst of some of the toughest, most challenging economic conditions most of us have seen, it would be easy to lower sights, to dim aspirations. However that’s not the reaction of businesses, social enterprises or communities across the Highlands and Islands. Nor is it ours. Ambition has and will continue to be at the heart of HIE.

    Read more

  • Scotland Week – Houston

    11th April 2012 by

    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.

    Read more

  • Scottish Enterprise Business Plan 2012-15

    5th April 2012 by

    I’ve been delighted to see such a positive response in the press about the launch of our new Business Plan for 2012-15. In the plan we’ve tried really hard to strike a balance between the focus on our long-term goals for Scotland, and the need to do something extra to respond to the conditions here and now.

    Read more

  • Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service Conference

    29th March 2012 by

    In Scotland, manufacturing has moved successfully over the past few decades from low value to high value niche markets and although the overall numbers employed have fallen, Scotland is still home to more than 8000 manufacturing companies - 93% of which are Scottish owned.

    Read more