What a year it has been for Dumfries & Galloway Chamber of Commerce. We have grown within the business community and met many business leaders, MSPS, MPS and even First ministers to make sure that businesses in our region continue to have their voice heard.
We held our bi-annual (now annual!) awards this year which celebrated the regions successes from young entrepreneurs to social enterprises to STEM businesses. The first minister met with us twice at the start of the year and last month.
Bank of England came to town to listen to businesses on the struggles they are having on a number of issues to which they fed back to Bank of England HQ. Our monthly networking events grew as they year went on, from small numbers of 4 to 5 attending to now consistently hitting double figures.
We had some success with campaigns we support with Dark Sky Observatory plans approved to be rebuilt here in the region after it was sadly burnt down. The ball finally started moving again in our A75 campaign with Road Developers Jacobs now undertaking studies on which parts of the road most need improvement in the coming years. We had a change of board members who we will introduce in next months issue!
We have collaborated with big stakeholders in the region such as SOSE, DG College, DG Council, SSDA to help with events & consultations. One of note, the change to school week hours which was scrapped. DG Council reached out to us to hear from the business community on these changes.
These are just a number of things we have been involved with this year.
We thrive to continue to be the general business voice of the region and would like to thank all businesses and communities for their support! We look forward to seeing what 2025 has to bring.