Chamber and committees

The latest statistics from the Export Statistics Scotland 2015 publication estimate (a) Scottish exports to Indonesia at £70 million; (b) Scottish exports to Singapore at £525 million; and (c) Scottish exports to Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei at £285 million.

Our Trade and Investment Strategy contains a comprehensive action plan aimed at boosting our exporting performance. This includes measures to enable businesses to realise opportunities in new export markets such as Asia. Scottish Development International has a permanent presence in Southeast Asia and is responsible for promoting trade and investment activity in the region focussing on those sectors with the greatest economic potential for Scotland, such as energy, education and food and drink.

I travelled to Japan from 12 to 17 February, where I undertook a programme of activity to strengthen links in business, trade, tourism, education and culture.

I met Mr Yukio Takano, the mayor of Toshima Ward, one of Tokyo’s most diverse cultural centres, where it was announced that a Scotland Day will be held in the Ward in November 2017. The Japan Scotland Association will organise the programme with support from Toshima Ward in providing venues, building on the success of last year’s inaugural event. Scotland Day is expected to feature visual arts and cultural performances, displays promoting Scottish products and Scotland as a tourism destination and place to study, plus talks on Scotland and Japan’s historical connections.

During a meeting at their offices, I had a discussion with the Nippon Foundation on their collaboration with Robert Gordon University to run a summer school for students in the field of marine engineering and opportunities for further collaboration

I hosted a business reception at the British Embassy in Tokyo to promote Scotland as a place to invest and highlight that Scotland is open for business. Guests included representatives from current and potential investors in Scotland, retailers of Scottish produce and a range of other businesses. The reception showcased examples of Scottish food, drink and textiles and promoted Scotland as a destination for tourism. Also present were a cultural delegation from Scotland supported by the British Council to explore the potential for deeper cultural collaborations between Scotland and Japan; and a delegation of teachers and education representatives from across Scotland supported by the Japan Foundation as part of a programme to encourage greater teaching of Japanese language and culture in Scottish schools.

I met Mr Hiroyuki Yoshiie, State Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to reaffirm the Scottish Government’s commitment to continue developing the relationship with Japan in the areas of education and culture. Later, I hosted a roundtable discussion with senior representatives from national and local government, the national culture agency, the Tokyo Olympics Games Organising Committee, the British Council and Festivals Edinburgh to share Scotland’s experience of using major events to promote cultural engagement and tourism. I heard about current plans for cultural activity for both the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and encouraged engagement in learning from Scotland’s experience in managing large-scale cultural events and maximising their impact.

I highlighted the quality and provenance of authentic Scottish produce during a visit to the first ever Scottish food and drink fair at the Isetan Shinjuku Store in Tokyo, which boasts the highest sales of any department store in Japan.

I spoke at a seminar at the British Embassy to outline Scotland’s approach to the care of people with dementia. Scotland and Japan are both remodelling their approach to care of older people due to ageing populations. At the seminar, government and healthcare professionals in Tokyo, together with experts from University of Stirling and NHS Scotland, explored the human rights-based approach facilitated by the development of a ‘Dementia Friendly Community’. I witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Stirling and the Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology committing to a long-term partnership. Scotland’s person-centric approach is highly regarded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology, which is looking to introduce a similar system in Japan.

I opened a seminar in Tokyo to encourage Japanese companies to invest in Scotland, highlighting Scotland’s strengths in innovation, research and manufacturing. Organised by Scottish Development International and the Japan External Trade Relations Organisation, the seminar reflected the developing relationship between Scottish and Japanese agencies in promoting bilateral trade and investment.

During my visit, I held meetings with a number of current investors in Scotland including Mitsubishi Electric, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Yokokawa, Toshiba Medical Systems, OKI Data and Reprocell.

In Nagasaki I visited Scotland House, the hub for Scottish marine renewables companies that I opened on my previous visit in 2015, where I announced that Aquatera, a leading Scottish environmental services firm, had been awarded a contract to support Nagasaki’s tidal energy test site in Japan. The contract was confirmed by Mr Toshiyuki Sakai, Head of the Nagasaki Marine Industry Cluster Promotion Association, as I met businesses and agencies to discuss opportunities for Scottish companies to support the development of Japan’s marine renewable energy sector.

I also met Mr Tomihisa Taue, the Mayor of Nagasaki City; Mr Houdou Nakamura, the Governor of Nagasaki Prefecture; and Mr Susumu Satomi, the Vice Governor of Nagasaki Prefecture; and a number of other senior representatives from Nagasaki’s business and sporting communities to reinforce the developing connections between Nagasaki and organisations in Scotland, including collaborations in renewable energy, academic exchange and sport. Nagasaki has been confirmed as the venue for the Scottish national rugby team’s holding camp for the Rugby World Cup in 2019.

During a visit to their campus, Nagasaki University confirmed their intention to extend their existing collaborations with a number of Scottish universities, to include the area of humanities. I held a seminar with humanities students at Nagasaki University, where they discussed the importance of international collaboration and exchange.

The seminar followed a meeting with university Vice President Mr Shunichi Yamashita and Professor Ikuo Yamomoto. Professor Yamomoto was instrumental in setting up partnerships with Heriot Watt University, University of Edinburgh and the University of Stirling. Nagasaki University also has partnerships with University of Aberdeen and University of Highlands and Islands. Existing partnerships include subjects such as marine energy, aquaculture, marine biology and English language exchanges. During my visit, I appointed Professor Yamomoto as a Global Scot in recognition of his work in supporting the relationship between Scotland and Japan.

There were a number of media engagements throughout the visit during which I highlighted the benefits of business and academic partnerships between Scotland and Japan, and set out the Scottish Government’s position on Europe.

I am very concerned about the impact on people’s lives that will result from the recently announced amendments being made to the Personal Independence Payment regulations by the UK Government. I have already written to the UK Minister responsible for this policy, expressing both this Government's opposition and the strength of feeling in Scotland about the number of people who will be affected, and calling on the UK Government to reconsider these changes.

For our part, we are committed to embedding dignity and respect in every aspect of Scotland’s approach to delivering social security. We will do this by involving those with direct experience of the current benefits system in the design of our new processes - through our Experience Panels – and by drawing on expertise through groups such as the Disability and Carers Benefits Expert Advisory Group, chaired by Dr Jim McCormick, current Associate Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Scotland has a thriving life sciences community which is recognised for the distinctive capabilities of our business base and research institutions, international reputation and potential for significant growth and creation of high value jobs.

The Scottish Government’s Programme of Government (2016) outlines our commitment to life sciences as a key sector. The Scottish Government and our agencies will continue to support the work of Life Sciences Scotland as they work to implement the priorities identified in the industry led Life Sciences Strategy for Scotland 2025 Vision: Accelerating Growth, Driving Innovation published on
2 February 2017. The strategy, which as co-chair of Life Sciences Scotland I fully welcome aims to increase the turnover in the sector to £8 billion by 2025, or a 90% increase. Since 2010 the life sciences sector has seen a 29% growth in turnover and 24% growth in gross value added (GVA), with current turnover in excess of
£4.2 billion.

Our overarching economic ambition is to see Scotland ranked in the top quartile of OECD countries for productivity, sustainability, equality and wellbeing. In working towards this, a strong innovation performance will be critical to improving Scotland’s long-term productivity growth. The Life Sciences sector is an important contributor to this, as spending on Research and Development in this sector represents 32.7 per cent of the total Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) spend in Scotland.

As regards to Scottish Government interactions to support growth in the sector we have, among many other areas of support, introduced six Enterprise Areas for life sciences, including Edinburgh Bioquarter, provided initiatives such as the Health Innovation Partnerships, developed the Innovation Centre programme, covering Biomedical and medical devices, and we have enhanced support for the sector by linking more effectively to the NHS.

Since 2010 the life sciences sector has seen a 29% growth in turnover and 24% growth in gross value added (GVA), with current turnover in excess of £4.2 billion.

A package of support is available through the Scottish Government and our agencies to stimulate further growth, including:

• Facilitating academic and industry collaborations through the Innovation Centres, particularly in Digital Health, Stratified Medicine, and Industrial Biotechnology;

• Providing innovation support through the SMART programme;

• Offering the Highlands and Islands Pathfinder Accelerator initiative;

• Delivering the Skills Investment Plan for Scotland;

• Developing 6 Life Science Enterprise Areas across Scotland to support employment, investment and growth;

• Supporting the development of medical technologies through the Health Innovation Partnership with the Scottish Life Sciences Association;

• Arranging account manager support for national and international companies; and

• Stimulating access to the NHS and to clinical investigators and patients through a single point of contact for industry; accessible clinical research support infrastructures; and streamlined and timely clinical trial approvals.

Significantly, the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is one of the most active investor in Life Sciences across in the UK, with 30 per cent of its portfolio in life sciences. SIB has invested £39 million in the sector over the last 5 years, leveraging £98.6 million in private funds which has been a great stimulus to the sector.

The Scottish Government is considering the benefits and drawbacks of a deposit return scheme. Such a scheme has the potential to reduce litter and improve recycling, but other factors must be taken into consideration. These include the impact on small stores with limited space, costs to retailers, and the impact on local authority kerbside collections.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the representation of women in senior and decision making positions. Gender balanced boards are clearly important as a matter of equality and moral principle, but evidence shows that there is a strong economic imperative too. Businesses that have a mix of men and women responsible for corporate governance do better on measures like return on investment and total shareholder return. In 2016, a study by the International Monetary Fund titled 'Unlocking Female Employment Potential in Europe' found strong evidence that companies with a higher proportion of women on the board, tended to be more profitable.

On 25 June 2015 the First Minister launched the Partnership for Change 50/50 by 2020 campaign, inviting private sector companies, voluntary sector organisations and public bodies to sign up to a voluntary commitment to work towards 50/50 gender balance on their boards by 2020. At the time of writing, the Partnership for Change has 191 signatories, including 36 private sector companies. Improving gender diversity on boards and in the workforce is also one of the nine components of the Scottish Business Pledge.

On 1 February 2017, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise, in collaboration with the Scottish Government, delivered a conference for private sector companies to raise awareness of the business benefits of diverse boards and to support companies to consider what action they can take to improve the gender balance and wider diversity of their boards. The Enterprise Agencies also offer a wide range of business support, and actively encourage companies who want to sign up to the Business Pledge to boost their performance through their commitment to fair and progressive business practices.

The Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are working together through Scottish Development International to attract inward investment to Scotland. Over the last year 55 inward investment projects have been attracted to Scotland and 354 for 4 of the last 5 years. The 2016 Ernst and Young Attractiveness Survey on inward investment to the UK http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/2016-UK-Attractiveness-Survey/$FILE/EY-UK-Attractiveness-Survey-2016.pdf

has shown that Scotland is the 2nd most attractive location for Foreign Direct Investment outside of London. With 79% of investors citing the Single Market as an important factor in their decision to locate in Scotland the UK Government's hard approach to Brexit puts this at risk.

Attracting inward investment is becoming increasing competitive on a global basis and it is important we prioritise and co-ordinate our efforts and resources to increase our success rate. To that end we look to match Scotland’s capabilities, assets and resources with the global market opportunity through our sectoral approach. In particular, we are increasing the co-coordinated efforts of our One Scotland approach in the technology and Financial and Business services sectors in California and London given its global hub position.

The Scottish Government welcomes the recent figures that show a 6% increase in overseas tourism expenditure in the twelve months to September 2016 and that the number of North American visitors and their spending increased notably during this period with increases of 14% and 28% respectively.

Scotland is actively promoted by VisitScotland as part of its national and international marketing campaigns, as well as through other marketing activities including its consumer website, visitscotland.com, social media, its network of iCentres and information partner programme across the country.

North America remains a key overseas market, with ancestry a major driver for visitors. The Scottish Government recently provided an additional £100,000 to VisitScotland as part of the Year of History Heritage and Archaeology promotion to enable it to undertake a digital ancestral campaign launched in January to target consumers who are engaging with programmes such as Outlander and related Scottish interest programmes.