Kate Forbes: The world is ignoring those who talk Scotland down
It's why we talk about a Team Scotland approach to economic growth – finding solutions, fixing problems and delivering results. The various moving parts of Team Scotland work together to attract, secure and support investment in exciting opportunities. With various public and private sector partners, Team Scotland works together to create momentum.
Despite persistent global headwinds, recent data from EY highlighted Scotland's attractiveness to global investment, and comparatively greater resilience in the face of general economic turbulence.
EY's data places Scotland firmly as the UK's top destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) outside of London – for the tenth year in a row – while Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow remain among the top six UK cities for FDI projects.
Although the total number of new projects in Scotland fell 4.9% from record figures in 2023, that number is marginal compared to a drop of 13% in the rest of the UK, 14% in France and 17% in Germany.
READ MORE: Scottish Government announces £23.5 million for active travel programmes
Despite a slight dip in the total number of projects in 2024 (135 projects, down from a record 142 in 2023), Scotland's share of overall UK projects actually increased to 15.8% (from 14.4% in 2023).
This shows Scotland's relative strength compared to broader declines in FDI across the UK and Europe.
EY's survey of global investors found that a quarter of those planning to invest in the UK are targeting Scotland, maintaining the country's long-standing position in investors' eyes as the UK's preferred FDI destination outside of London.
I recently visited the Glasgow offices of Canadian IT and business consulting services firm CGI Inc, which employs around 750 people across its Glasgow, Edinburgh, Borders and Aberdeen offices, and has nearly 100,000 employees globally.
CGI Inc is one of the many thriving international businesses choosing to call Scotland home. The fascinating ZeroAvia, hailing from the US (and developing full hydrogen-electric aircraft engines), is another new resident, along with the Australian not-for-profit ticketing hub Humanitix, who recently opened an office in Edinburgh. 2025 is bringing further significant investment and exciting projects to Scotland.
I realise some may be wondering why this is important, or what Scotland's leading place in FDI means. How does FDI benefit the people of Scotland?
FDI plays a crucial role in Scotland's economy, contributing significantly to job creation, economic growth, innovation and exports. Quite simply, foreign-owned companies in Scotland, although representing a smaller percentage of all businesses, have a disproportionately large impact on the economy.
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These companies account for a substantial share of employment in Scotland, contributing significantly to job creation.
These jobs often offer higher average wages than those in domestically owned businesses. Foreign-owned businesses contribute a disproportionately high percentage to Scotland's Gross Value Added (GVA), indicating that these companies possess high productivity and make an outsized economic impact. Inward investors have outstripped domestic businesses in investing in business research and development spending, which fosters innovation and technological advancement within the nation.
These innovators also generate a large portion of the total business turnover in Scotland and become major drivers behind Scottish exports.
FDI can bring new skills and management practices, which can 'spill over' and benefit domestic Scottish businesses through supply-chain opportunities, hiring and knowledge sharing.
Geopolitical headwinds are clearly affecting investor confidence globally. Scotland's FDI resilience in the face of this crisis of confidence is an incredible endorsement of Scotland as a destination for global investment.
Scotland's ability to maintain high project numbers and even increase its share of UK projects comes against a backdrop of a marked decline in FDI across Europe and the UK overall.
READ MORE: Scottish Labour drop below Alba and Greens as by-election results called
A huge amount of work, across both the private and public sectors, goes into securing these projects, which are vital for economic growth, job creation and bringing benefits across our towns and cities.
It's a privilege to work with Team Scotland to secure these global opportunities, and the Scottish Government will continue to work with business partners to build our country's reputation as a world-class location for investment.
In this digital and hyper-connected world, the continued pursuit of strategic inward investment will propel Scotland towards being a fairer and more prosperous nation.
It's also a sign that investors from abroad don't listen to the relentless whingeing of the opposition in the Scottish Parliament about Scotland.
Where the opposition see weakness, international allies see strengths.
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The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Inquiry demand over 'scandal' of 100s of jobs lost in ferry fiasco
A rejected proposal to create a Clyde shipbuilding revolution, save state-controlled Scots shipyard firm Ferguson Marine and help solve the nation's ferry crisis fronted by a Scots entrepreneur involves the creation of a fleet of 50 catamarans as part of an £800 million scheme - a fraction of the cost of those currently being built. The proposal works out at £16m per catamaran while the cost of the Scottish Government's 13 is at around £70m to date. Anger has erupted as an analysis of warnings by the state-owned ferry operator CalMac over potential and actual disruptions to passengers using two ferries on one of Scotland's busiest lifeline routes through technical faults and the ability to operate in adverse weather surrounded one of the two massively over-budget and wildly delayed ferry fiasco vessels - MV Glen Sannox. Users have told The Herald how of the two ferries operating from Troon to Arran it is the second emergency catamaran, MV Alfred - chartered for nearly two years from Pentland Ferries - that has become the 'reliable workhorse' despite being six years older than Glen Sannox which finally started taking passengers in January. Stuart Ballantyne with one of his catamaran designsAt the start of the month, the catamaran was chartered for a further five months to help cope with the continuing island ferry crisis at a public cost of £22m - that's £8m more than it cost to buy. It is believed that Alfred was modelled on designs by Stuart Ballantyne, a Scottish naval architect and chairman of Australian marine consulting firm Sea Transport Solutions who it has emerged began proposing the catamaran plan to the Scottish Government in 2008. That's seven years before state-owned ferry owner and procurer Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) signed off on the disastrous £97m ferry contract to build two ferries at the Inverclyde shipyard firm Ferguson Marine owned then by the Scots tycoon and entrepreneur Jim McColl after it got ministerial approval. The Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa ferries were due to start taking passengers in the first half of 2018 with both eventually to serve Arran but have run seven years or more late with costs expected rise more than five fold the original £97m contract. In the midst of the delays and soaring costs, Ferguson Marine under the control of Mr McColl fell into administration and was nationalised at the end of 2019 with CMAL and the yard's management blaming each other. CMAL has since stuck with single hull ferries in designs for a new fleet of 11 vessels, with nearly £400m of contracts going abroad. It has denied it has been anti-catamaran. Read more: Now a group of experts has joined with Mr Ballantyne and local campaigners to raise concerns about the procurement of ferries in Scotland and said there should be a public inquiry into what is considered to be a "scandal". Among the group is Professor Alf Baird, a former director of the Maritime Research Group at Napier University who has been non-plussed by Scotland's failure to grasp the nettle of the catamaran project and shipping expert and consultant Roy Pedersen, who were both part of a high powered Scottish Government-formed advisory group over the ongoing ferry fiasco which was wound up in 2022 having not met since October, 2019. Some believe it is because ministers did not like the sound of dissenting voices. Alf Baird (Image: NQ) In a 2023 dossier from one ferry user group titled "CMAL's history of obstructing medium-speed catamaran" it detailed how Dr Baird had further presented the catamaran opportunity to the expert group in 2017 but there was resistance. Ten years ago leading academic Prof Neil Kay resigned from the advisory body months after it was created and accused the organisation of sidelining the interests of passengers. Now the group that also includes activists for the Campaign to Save Inchgreen Dry Dock which is fighting to save Scottish shipbuilding said the inquiry is needed in the wake of resistance to the catamaran project and the abolition of the expert advisory group. "Dismissing ferry advisers recruited specifically for their expert knowledge of the Scottish ferry services was seen by many as a deliberate ploy on the part of Transport Scotland to avoid scrutiny of CMAL's management and procurement failures," they said. This led to "over-specified" and overpriced major vessels and an "apparent inherent bias against a proven, more efficient and reliable catamaran option that would have greatly reduced capital and operating costs". They said: " If catamarans are not suited to our island routes as has been claimed, how can the Alfred be operating so successful..." A response from Transport Scotland's ferries infrastructure and finance division when asked about the catamaran project said that "any design solutions and procurement of new vessels by CMAL would be a decision for that authority and would need to be undertaken in line with applicable legislation and process." It said: " all proposals which may benefit Scotland's ferry network. This includes all appropriate vessel designs which can enhance or improve connections across Scotland's lifeline ferry network." The group said that this had "waved away any responsibility for the runaway costs, waste, abysmal performance and general havoc created by CMAL's design and procurement decisions". They went on: "This is surely a dereliction on the part of Transport Scotland of the duty to safeguard the public purse and the well being of the communities involved, otherwise what are they being paid for? "Dr Stuart Ballantyne's catamaran designs and plans were to build the new Scottish ferry fleet at Ferguson Marine - securing hundreds of jobs - Inchgreen and Govan dry docks. The 20-year plan that was given to current deputy first minister Kate Forbes in June 2022 could provide hundreds of skilled jobs and economic benefits for our Clyde communities and Scotland. The group said: "Instead, recent orders and taxpayers' money have gone to foreign shipyards for more over-specified vessels when cheaper to purchase and operate, home built catamaran designs are on the table. " They said responses to them "laid bare the total mismanagement of Scottish ferry services that continues to be a burden on the Scottish taxpayer. "It seems clear that CMAL is not fit for purpose and that the Scottish Government is not facing up to this long standing problem. There needs to be an independent public inquiry to get to the truth. Our island communities deserve much better. "It is time to make Clyde shipbuilding great again." It was envisaged that the major catamaran project would be based at nationalised Ferguson Marine, Inchgreen dry dock in Inverclyde and Govan dry dock. The Govan dry dock dates back to the 19th century, and has been out of action for more than 40 years but there are hopes that it can be brought back into use. Govan Drydock has said it wants to return the A listed dry dock to a fully operational ship repair and maintenance facility. The consortium headed by Mr Ballantyne said the plan will require a skilled workforce of around 1200 with hundreds more required in the supply chain. They say that the annual operating cost of catamarans is around half that of current CMAL monohull vessels. And they say that means that operating subsidies will be expected to be slashed as more catamarans begin to enter service. Mr Ballantyne, who over a decade ago received an honorary degree from Strathclyde University for services to the global maritime industry, says he believes that Scotland has the skills and infrastructure to establish a commercial shipyard which could be used to produce ferries not just for Scotland but for the export market. He said: "It is logical for a Scottish ferry company to logically support a Scottish shipbuilder for all the obvious reasons of local and national prosperity, skills training of youth, tackling youth crime and drug use. "I would suggest it is prudent to carry out a close investigation of CMAL decision makers... "The Scottish taxpayer is paying well above the odds over what can be produced locally." Four years ago the Scottish Government-owned owner of the ferry fleet demanded a foreign firm pay up to £100,000 to gain UK maritime approval before purchasing a ferry for just £9m - and the insistence led to the deal collapsing. That is £2m less than the current cost so far of repairs to 32-year-old MV Caledonian Isles which is out of action indefinitely after being sidelined for 17 months. Pentland Ferries' emergency ferry for CalMac MV Alfred has been a reliable feature on the Arran ferry run (Image: Newsquest) Discussions about acquiring the Indonesia-built vessel, which was proposed by the Mull and Iona Ferry Committee came before what was described at the time as a 'summer of chaos' across Scotland's ageing ferry network. It was claimed that CMAL made an "incredible" move to have the overseas owners fork out for the official approvals for any modifications to make it suitable for Scottish waters, which were estimated to have cost no more than £100,000. Committee chairman Joe Reade said: "I would agree that CMAL and CalMac are averse to anything novel. All their vessels - even the newest ones are in many respects just modern interpretations of a very old design type, with ancient operating practices embedded into them. So we don't have lock-on linkspans, as have been used elsewhere for generations (thus removing the need for rope-handling, and crew to do it). "It only adds to the cost of the ship, the size of the superstructure and the number of crew. "More efficient crewing is not just a feature of catamarans - it's a feature of any inshore ferry that has been designed to commercial incentives. Neither CalMac nor CMAL have any incentive to build or operate efficiently. It does not matter if they operate efficiently or productively, because whatever the cost, we the taxpayer pick it up. "The simple reason why Pentland Ferries chose a catamaran design was because as a commercial enterprise, they have to compete to survive. They are incentivised to make cost-effective buying and operating decisions. CalMac and CMAL have no such incentives, and so our hugely expensive, profligate and shamingly wasteful ferry system continues. "The more expensive ferries are to buy, and the more costly it is to operate, the more pressure there will be to increase fares, and the more difficult it will be to maintain or improve services. The ferry system is in danger of becoming unaffordable if costs continue to spiral. "This matters to us not just as taxpayers, but as islanders too." A spokesperson for CMAL said: "CMAL is not anti-catamaran; but what often goes unreported is that in geographies similar to Scotland, with comparable weather and sea conditions, medium speed (below 20 knots) catamarans are not a common choice for passenger / commercial ferry services. "An important factor in vessel choice is compatibility with specific routes, as well as flexibility to meet vessel redeployment needs across the network. We will only ever order the vessels best suited to the routes and communities they are intended to serve.' A Transport Scotland spokesperson said: "Assessment of new vessel options for routes across our networks is led by CMAL, Transport Scotland and the relevant operator. "As part of the design process CMAL appoint naval architects and technical consultants to consider and advise on vessel designs and route specific issues. Various hull forms (including catamaran designs), propulsion options, fuel types, and onboard arrangements are considered and assessed as part of the design process. Engagement with communities, businesses and representative groups is essential, and it is maintained throughout the process.'
Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
PGA Tour star tackled by security guard showed true colours with statement
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The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Is Scotland's foreign direct investment success actually a good thing?
It comes after data published by accounting giant EY last week showed that Scotland had been the top destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK outside of London for a decade. EY reported that Scotland was bucking international trends by seeing an increase in its share of FDI projects in the UK against a 'backdrop of a marked decline in project numbers' across Europe. In 2024, the country attracted 135 FDI projects, the second highest ever recorded after 2023's 142. That represented 15.8% of the UK projects targeted for FDI, up from 14.4% in 2023 and above its decade average of 11.5%. Deputy First Minister and Economy Secretary Kate Forbes (Image: Colin Mearns) Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who also serves as Economy Secretary, called the figures 'an incredible endorsement of Scotland's proposition as a destination for global investment'. However, Craig Dalzell, the head of policy and research at Common Weal, urged caution, saying that Scotland was a 'massive outlier' internationally for the wrong reasons. 'Essentially, every investment demands a return on investment. So if foreign companies are investing in Scotland, then the profits that result from those investments go overseas,' he said. 'That has a direct impact on the amount of wealth that leaves Scotland. 'The level of profit extraction in Scotland as a proportion of our size as a percentage of GDP is higher than the average of West African countries. It's higher than the collection of the poorest and most indebted nations on the planet. READ MORE: Lesley Riddoch: Highlanders are rallying against Scotland's energy land grab 'It's like we have this wealthy country, but we're treating it as if we're a completely undeveloped company, utterly reliant on other people coming in to develop it for us. It's just bizarre.' Last year, Common Weal published a paper looking at FDI projects titled 'Profit extraction: How foreign ownership drains Scotland's wealth'. It compared Scotland's GDP (gross domestic product) and its GNI (gross national income) and found that, in 2021, £36.5 billion was extracted from Scotland – largely in the form of profits and dividends to foreign companies and shareholders – while £26.4bn flowed into Scotland – largely as foreign investment income: a net outwards flow of £10.1bn. The Scottish Government does not routinely publish GNI figures, and has not done so since the 2021 figures were published. Dalzell said this meant it was 'impossible to know' the true impact of FDI projects on Scotland. He went on: 'But our paper found that more than a quarter of a trillion pounds has left Scotland through foreign profit extraction since the start of devolution. 'If that had been domestic companies investing in Scotland, that wealth would have stayed in Scotland and recirculated around Scotland.' Norway and the UK's different approaches to oil and gas are worth examining, Craig Dalzell saidDalzell argued that Scotland was heading towards a repeat of the same mistakes of the past in allowing vast sums of wealth to be extracted from the country by private enterprise. 'If you look at the level of profit extraction as a proportion of the size of the wealth of a country, GDP per capita of a country, there's a very clear correlation: richer countries are more able to become profit importers rather than profit exporters,' he said. 'The rich countries tend to invest elsewhere and then they pull the profits in. Scotland is a massive outlier in this. 'One of the reasons that Denmark is a profit-importing country is because it has several public energy companies and they're investing overseas. The Danish state is investing in Scotland. Why not the other way around? 'Where Scotland lacks capital for investment, you can do it in a way that doesn't mean selling off your economy. Look at the way that Norway developed its oil fields, for instance. READ MORE: Assa Samake-Roman: We need to look at where our money vanishes to 'Britain sold off its oil fields and allowed the companies to come in and drill the oil and take the profits. Norway hired the companies to build the rigs but kept ownership of them. 'We're seeing the same thing happening with renewables. We're allowing companies to come in, put up the wind turbines, own them, and take the profits.' Responding to Dalzell's concerns, Deputy First Minister Forbes said the Government was 'focused on ensuring that foreign direct investment projects create jobs, bring benefits to towns and cities throughout Scotland and grow the economy'. 'Exciting projects this year including green aircraft engine developer ZeroAvia and ticketing hub Humanitix will bring thousands of new jobs to Scotland and enhance the country's reputation as a world-class location for foreign investment,' she added. READ MORE: Scottish economy 'to outstrip UK, France, and Germany in 2026', KPMG projects There have been proposals, such as from the SNP's Trade Union Group or the Alba Party, for the Scottish Government to take shares in energy projects north of the Border. However, these have not progressed at government level. Dalzell further called for more routine publishing of GNI statistics to give a clearer picture of Scotland's economy. In response to a Freedom of Information request in February, the Scottish Government said: 'One of the key data sources for [GNI] statistics is an extract from the FDI survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 'During 2024, the ONS delayed its processing of the FDI survey … and the Scottish Government has not received data for 2022 or subsequent years. 'We expect to receive data for 2022 and 2023 during 2025, and will review plans for our publication when this is received. A publication date will be pre-announced when known.'
