Chief Executive
Building our future
The real added value for Scottish Enterprise is in making connections that support business investment and local communities as vital to economic success
STEVE DUNLOP, THE CHIEF Executive of Scottish Enterprise for just over a year, spoke recently at our Glasgow Talks series about his organisation’s fresh new three-year plan and raised the suggestion of regional investment prospectuses to support the growth of vibrant local economic communities. We had an opportunity to dig underneath SE’s thinking processes in its 'Building Scotland’s Future Today' strategy and how it applies to Glasgow Chamber and its membership. It is a change in direction and one that is entirely appropriate because it reflects a profound understanding of how local communities are of vital importance to economic success. Waving the flag for the nation on the international stage, and selling our wares to the world, remains important, but economic success must also be rooted in our communities. Of course, it is crucial that SE continues to work on behalf of individual businesses whether through advice or investment. However, the real added value for a government agency such as Scottish Enterprise is in making connections that support business investment and growth and at the same time create the economic value and impact for local communities. If local
The change in direction reflects how local communities are of vital importance to economic success"
communities don’t see that connection, then the disenchantment we have seen with business and with politics will lead to more decisions like Brexit. There is a positive cycle too.
The more that local people see employment opportunities in their areas, the easier it will be to encourage local people to get into training and education and get into the labour market which will, in the midst of a global battle for talent, attract more employment nearer to the places where they live. It is a genuinely symbiotic system. Dunlop’s leadership in placing
economic growth in a variety of Scottish locations, such as the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District in Renfrewshire or at the Glasgow City Innovation District next to the University of
Strathclyde, playing
off the assets which each location has, is a clearer strategy for all of us to grasp. We have
several more opportunities in the Glasgow City Region that we would hope to see in a Glasgow investment prospectus like the University of Glasgow’s Riverside Innovation
District, the Scottish Events Campus or the next phases of Clyde Gateway’s development of the East End.
Dunlop’s regional investment prospectus proposals also make sense because Scotland is not up for massive structural change and money is tight. It is worthwhile re-invigorating local community structures with Scottish Enterprise acting as an independent facilitator, developing regional prospectuses with a set of projects to attract private investment which build community assets and self-confidence, then Scottish Development International (SDI) can act as a Scottish sales force overseas, targeting the likes of a Canadian pension fund or a sovereign wealth fund interested in Scotland. If Scottish Enterprise can act as
a catalyst, pulling together such investment prospectuses which could assist in promoting Phase Two of our City Deal, then both public and private sectors are playing a stronger role in building the inclusive communities we all need.
Stuart Patrick, Chief Executive chiefexecutive@glasgow
chamberofcommerce.com
www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com 7
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