Chamber and committees

The First Minister visited the United States between the 2^nd and 7^th April attending events and meetings in California and New York.

The visit focused on promoting trade and investment, boosting tourism, sharing best practice across the public and private sector and promoting Scottish innovation, entrepreneurship and culture.

The relationship between Scotland and America is an important one with deep and long-standing ties reflected by the strong economic, cultural and personal links of our citizens. The US is Scotland’s top source of inward investment, accounting for 36% of projects and is Scotland’s second largest export partner - worth £4.56 billion or 15.9% of all international exports.

This visit came at a crucial time following the UK’s vote to leave the EU and the single market, and only days after the formal triggering of Article 50. It was important that the First Minister took this opportunity to reassure businesses and visitors from the United States that Scotland is an outward looking, welcoming country and remains open for business.

Beginning her engagements in California the First Minister, joined by Dr Lena Wilson of Scottish Enterprise and Chief Scientific Advisor Professor Sheila Rowan, focussed on opportunities for Scotland’s technology sector, low carbon innovation, university collaborations, and Scottish start-ups.

The First Minister met representatives from Par Equity and confirmed that Par Equity will open its first office in San Francisco and launch a $125 million fund, focussed on providing investment opportunities in health technology in Scotland and access to the US market for Scottish companies.

At Stanford the First Minister hosted a business breakfast for an influential business and academic audience in which she promoted Scottish Government support for high quality international research partnerships that further the economic, scientific and social aims of both Scotland and California, with specific reference to Strathclyde, Stanford and the SU2P initiative which also includes the universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh, Heriot Watt and Glasgow.

Meetings with Apple and Tesla concentrated on opportunities for shared public and private sector collaboration in the areas of next generation health and well-being research, including the use of digital health and care to deliver better results through personalised, proactive and self-managed care and on opportunities to further develop Scotland’s sustainable energy initiatives and reinforce the strategic importance of energy storage technology to Scotland’s wider energy strategy, highlighting the common goal of a holistic energy system.

The First Minister also hosted a dinner with representatives of major US firms to discuss opportunities for Scotland in Silicon Valley and met with American angel investors, ahead of a delegation of seven female CEO’s supported by Investing Women to California, to highlight the Scottish Governments vision of Scotland as a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation committed to unleashing the economic potential of women.

Building on the technology focus of the visit, the First Minister later visited the Flatiron School, a digital skills academy in New York that is helping equip people with skills to gain employment in ICT and digital technology occupations. The Flatiron school provided an opportunity to learn from one of the foremost digital skills academies in the world and followed the announcement that the Scottish Government is to make £36 million available in loans to business to support digital skills training.

The visit also focussed on key economic opportunities in the financial services sector, food and drink and tourism.

In New York the First Minister met with representatives of Marriott Hotels and welcomed their continued investment and strong growth pipeline in Scotland including their commitment to create 7 new hotels and 1,400 new rooms in Scotland by 2021, reinforcing Scotland’s key tourism investment and visitor attraction strengths at a global leadership level.

She also met with Executives from TripAdvisor and announced a European-first, multi-year collaboration, with VisitScotland. The unique partnership with the world’s largest travel website will attract up to 70 million new visitors every year generating a potential additional spend of £150million.

Celebrating Scotland’s food and drink industry success the First Minister attended a showcase event in New York organised by Scottish Development International to promote Scottish produce to an audience of over 100 North American buyers and industry influencers and to showcase new agreements secured by Scottish firms worth £8m of export sales to North America, further strengthening food and drink exports in a market that was worth £1billion in 2016.

The First Minister also held business meetings with Morgan Stanley and BlackRock to further develop the relationships with key inward investors and met with staff and graduates at Aberdeen Asset Management, officially opening their expansion in New York and discussed economic developments in Scotland, Europe and the US with Professor Joseph Stiglitz of the Council of Economic Advisers.

In addition to the focus on business and investment, the First Minister met Scottish Ballet Youth Exchange students studying at the prestigious New York University TISCH School of the Performing Arts, supported by Scottish Government funding.

Fourteen participants from Scotland’s leading performing arts schools aged between 14 and 24 are currently taking part in a two week visit to the US, collaborating with dance students from TISCH. This allows Scottish Ballet to showcase Scottish dance training abroad and to create a new work to be premiered at The Joyce Theater in New York City.

This initiative was part of a wider £100,000 International Touring Fund awarded to Scottish Ballet this year to enable their first ever run in New York

The First Minister also hosted a reception to celebrate the Scottish Ballet’s first tenure in New York City, and promoted the world-class calibre of Scottish performing arts.

The visit also provided an opportunity to highlight the contribution Scotland can make to key global challenges.

During the California leg of her visit the First Minister reaffirmed Scotland’s role in tackling climate change during a meeting with the Governor of California. She signed a joint agreement between Scotland and California committing to work together on climate change. The First Minister and the Governor discussed how the two administrations could work together to achieve the ambitions set out in the Under2 MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) and the importance of offshore wind in tackling climate change and considered how the two governments could share knowledge and best practice in developing this technology.

The First Minister followed the agreement with a speech to over 250 Stanford academics and students on Scotland’s Place in the World which can be viewed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T4QeptQTV0 The First Minister then took part in a Q&A, hosted by Professor Michael McFaul, Director at The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

Attending the 8th Women in the World Summit, the First Minister discussed Scotland’s commitment to equality, her personal experience of being a female leader and the importance of empowering women and girls. This followed on from a visit by the First Minister to the UN where she held meetings with UN Women, the Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. During a speech at the UN, the First Minister announced £1.2m of funding to train more than 200 women from conflict zones around the world on peacekeeping and conflict resolution. The First Minister used her address to highlight the importance of mediation and respect for human rights as a way of preventing conflict, and lent her support to the UN Secretary General’s call for more female representation in the United Nations.