As First Minister it is my priority, especially in the aftermath of Brexit, to strengthen our existing ties with international partners and seek new opportunities for collaboration. It is important we offer reassurance that Scotland is an open, outward-looking country and an attractive place in which to invest, live, study and travel. This was the purpose of my recent visit to California and New York.
The US is one of Scotland’s most important sources of inward investment, accounting for 36% of inward investment projects and nearly 16% of our international exports, also making it our second largest export partner. However there is endless potential to do more.
There are major opportunities for Scotland’s technology sector in low carbon innovation, university collaborations and start-ups, which were a key focus of my engagements in California.
Scotland’s universities are a huge part of our success and while in California I took part in an engaging discussion with business leaders and academics at Stanford University on enhancing our joint expertise in photonics. The university, one of the most prestigious in the world, is working in partnership with five Scottish universities to strengthen the economic and scientific impact of photonics in California and Scotland, ensuring a strong connection between research and entrepreneurial activity. In addition I met representatives from investment company Par Equity, which alongside opening its first US office in San Francisco launched a $125 million fund to support Scottish health technology companies to expand into the US, providing new opportunities to deliver a transformation in healthcare solutions.
I also took the opportunity to follow-up recent engagement in Scotland from Apple and Tesla, concentrating on the potential for collaboration across the use of digital technology to deliver personalised, proactive and self-managed care; and to further develop Scotland’s sustainable energy initiatives and reinforce the strategic importance of energy storage technology to Scotland’s wider energy strategy.
It is my key priority to ensure the government I lead does all it can to unleash the economic potential of women, and we have a well-established relationship with social enterprise Investing Women. In California they hosted a roundtable discussion with a number of American-based angel investors specifically interested in supporting women-led start-ups. Our focus was to promote investment in Scotland’s women entrepreneurs in advance of a delegation of female CEOs travelling to California later this month. I was also pleased to confirm the doubling of our financial support for Investing Women, allowing them to expand their work which to date has helped create 60 jobs and over £2 million of investment.
North America is our top destination for food and drink exports, valued at $1.1 billion in 2016 – more than double what they were ten years ago. Even by its own high standards, this industry is enjoying something of a golden age as more companies are trading in the US than ever before, but we know there’s potential for even greater success. In NYC I had the pleasure of joining a showcase promoting our food and drink offering to senior US distributors. The event supported a number of Scottish companies who exhibited their products and I was pleased to welcome the news that they have recently secured £8 million of export sales to North America. If you have yet to try seaweed butter, let me tell you – it’s a revelation!
It is ever more important to demonstrate that Scotland is an open and welcoming place to visit. To support our booming tourism industry we need to ensure there is more hotel capacity. In New York I met representatives of Marriott International to discuss their plans to increase investment in Scotland by opening seven new hotels and growing the number of rooms by almost 75 per cent. This is representative of the desire of companies to invest in the hotel sector in Scotland. Figures from January showed overall there are plans for 38 new hotels across the country and nine hotel extensions – a welcome boost to support and sustain the growth in business and leisure tourism.
I was also pleased to announce another essential development for tourism – a European-first partnership between TripAdvisor and VisitScotland which is set to generate millions of pounds for Scotland’s economy. The partnership will see Scotland as a destination promoted to almost 70 million new potential visitors, generating a potential additional spend of £150 million.
Scotland has strength and expertise across a variety of sectors and whether its food and drink, precision medicine, low-carbon technologies or digital innovation, I am committed to building on these successes and attracting more companies to invest and expand here. This visit established important links which I hope will benefit Scotland’s investment and trade capabilities in years to come.
