Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 29 March 2017
29 Mar 2017 · S5 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
SinoFortone and China Railway No 3 Engineering Group Memorandum of Understanding
This debate is a walk down memory lane. I am sure that it is not a pleasant walk for the cabinet secretary, because the story was clearly excruciating for the SNP Government at the time.
I can picture the First Minister signing a memorandum of understanding with SinoFortone and China Railway No 3 Engineering Group, on 21 March 2016. On the face of it, there was nothing unusual about that, but it was odd that the photo appeared only in the China Daily; there was nothing in the Scottish press. I confess that I would have missed it, because the China Daily is not my local paper. It was strange: a Government that issues press releases about the opening of envelopes was suddenly remarkably reticent about telling us what was going on.
The deal was reported as being worth more than £10 billion of investment in infrastructure projects in
“clean energy, transport and ... housing.”
It is always good to find out what is going on in Scotland and in the Scottish Government from our friends overseas, but that rather points to a breathtaking lack of accountability of the Scottish Government to this Parliament.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Christine Grahame)
SNP
The next item of business is a debate on motion S5M-04919, in the name of Willie Rennie, on censure and apology on the anniversary of the Chinese agreement. ...
Willie Rennie (North East Fife) (LD)
LD
This debate is about a £10 billion deal with two Chinese companies—one that has connections to human rights abuses in Africa, and the other that promised bil...
John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member take an intervention?
Willie Rennie
LD
Not just now. The oddest thing then was that everything went quiet for months. However, we discover that the deal is off: cue more outrage at us from the Sc...
The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work (Keith Brown)
SNP
I would like to try, if I can, to do two things—first, to ensure that Parliament has clear facts on the status of the memorandum of understanding and what ha...
Neil Findlay (Lothian) (Lab)
Lab
In another area where the Government has been seeking to do business, Qatar, there are well-established concerns about human rights, and particularly the sla...
Keith Brown
SNP
I reinforce the point that I have just made. We will maintain our commitment to human rights. While we already consider human rights in all our engagements w...
Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green)
Green
I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for giving way. He is moving on from the substance of this debate to the wider arguments about trade and international...
Keith Brown
SNP
If Patrick Harvie reads back the Official Report, he will find that I have already done the first two of those things. I will come back to the others in my c...
Dean Lockhart (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
This debate about the SNP’s mismanagement of a potential £10 billion investment in the economy is one of many examples of how the Government’s incompetence h...
John Mason
SNP
Will the member give way?
Dean Lockhart
Con
Perhaps I will give way later. Chinese companies have experience of investing across the world. In progressing this potential investment in Scotland they wo...
Patrick Harvie
Green
Will Dean Lockhart take an intervention?
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
The member is moving into his final minute.
Dean Lockhart
Con
I am just about to wrap up. In other parts of the UK, we have seen how successful investment joint ventures between Chinese companies and investors and regi...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
This debate is a walk down memory lane. I am sure that it is not a pleasant walk for the cabinet secretary, because the story was clearly excruciating for th...
John Mason
SNP
Will Jackie Baillie take an intervention?
Jackie Baillie
Lab
I will, in a second. Let me be clear: I very much welcome inward investment, which is important for growing our economy and creating jobs. We know that trad...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
Would you please move the amendment?
Jackie Baillie
Lab
I move amendment S5M-04919.3, to insert at end: “; recognises that inward investment can be a beneficial part of a broad economic development and growth str...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
I think that you used the term “deliberately misled”, which comes close to using in Parliament a term that I do not approve of. I will just let you consider ...
Liam McArthur (Orkney Islands) (LD)
LD
Willie Rennie has set out in detail the extent of the SNP Government’s complacency and incompetence in its dealings with the two companies that have been nam...
Maree Todd (Highlands and Islands) (SNP)
SNP
I welcome the cabinet secretary’s remarks and I am pleased to hear that lessons have been learned. I am sure that we can all agree that investment in Scotlan...
Liam McArthur
LD
Will the member take an intervention?
Maree Todd
SNP
No. Unfortunately, I do not have time. We hear one story in the Scottish Parliament and another at Westminster. We regularly hear in the chamber about the c...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
I warn the member that I will tolerate a little deviation from the subject of the debate, but not the entire deviation.
Maree Todd
SNP
I think that this is a human rights issue. My experience of working in mental health care was that very many of the people I worked with were harmed by the U...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
I am sorry, but I must warn the member to keep to the topic of the debate. She has made two lengthy deviations from it.
Maree Todd
SNP
I thought that the debate was on the economy. We need to stand up for our agriculture.
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con)
Con
The member should be debating the motion.