Question reference: S6W-27169
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 1 May 2024
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Current status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 13 May 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it is promoting Scotland’s interests overseas and boosting inbound and outbound trade and investment missions to secure opportunities for Scottish companies in the international hydrogen market and drive inward investment, as set out in its Hydrogen Action Plan.
Answer
The Scottish Government and its partners engage with and provide specialist support to companies in Scotland seeking to trade overseas, including help to attend trade shows and establish links with international project developers.
We are working with Scotland’s Enterprise Agencies to develop the Hydrogen Sector Export Plan and this will be informed by the findings of commissioned reports on identifying priority international markets for Scottish companies to target and assesses demand for hydrogen and hydrogen products in North West Europe. We are also supporting Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) work on the Hydrogen Backbone Link project seeking to establish the case for a hydrogen export pipeline from Scotland to mainland Europe.
We have supported several trade delegations including to Dubai Expo and, in January this year, Hyvolution in France, to which it is planned to return next year. We have supported visit programmes of several inward delegations, including from India, Singapore and German States.
Scottish Development International (SDI) has taken a strategic and targeted approach to attracting direct foreign investment to Scotland. It is focused on attracting hydrogen producers, supply chain companies and end users. Our hydrogen opportunity is being promoted internationally by SDI’s overseas offices and by relevant UK Government departments. This has catalysed visits to Scotland by companies, innovation partnerships with universities, a strong project concept pipeline and initial investments.