Committee
Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee 14 December 2023
14 Dec 2023 · S6 · Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Item of business
National Outcomes
Katrine Feldinger
Watch on SPTV
The short answer is that, any time we take on what is essentially a start-up within Government territory, the first set of objectives is about getting it right. How do we land in the market and make a reasonable impact of the right size? If we give ourselves so much follow-up work that we fail to do it, we are not doing ourselves any favours in the long term. We had some short-term objectives for the first year around a couple of high-profile visits that helped us to generate some press and attention about the fact that we had landed in the Nordics, essentially. We had a couple of internal-facing objectives to get the team right for the kinds of things that we thought the Nordics might be interested to talk to us about and to ensure that we had the right skill sets and policy backgrounds. We then had a big set of objectives about getting the relationship right with our host British embassies. Uniquely in the network, we have the task of working with three, five or eight embassies, depending on how we cut the Nordics and Baltics network that the UK Government runs, while ensuring that we have enough of a timespan to get the relationship right with each of those teams, understanding their priorities in the single country that they are in and how we can work with that and augment it. That has been a big part of our work for the first 18 months. That part of the work has paid off really well, as we are now at the stage at which we are starting to have annual organised events with those embassies. Burns night and St Andrew’s day events are starting to roll out across different countries—those are nice, high-profile cultural events to have. We have a really good understanding of what the embassies’ priorities are, so we therefore have a really good understanding of where Scotland has something unique to offer to Sweden or Norway, for instance. We can brief the relevant British embassy to ensure that it is drawing us into conversations. For only three people in the Nordic region, that gives us quite a big bang for our buck. That has been a deliberate part of the strategy. We have had a good measure of success there, and the press is pretty interested in the fact that we consistently look to the Nordics as a model for policy for Scotland, and that also keeps us going as we make new friends across comms. The former First Minister came out, and such visits will always be high profile. Patrick Harvie and Ms Martin have also visited. We have had some nice, high-profile hits for all those visits, which have got us inquiries from people we would not necessarily have thought to get in touch with.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Our next agenda item is to take evidence on the committee’s inquiry into the Scottish Government’s national outcomes and indicators relating to international...
Catriona Radcliffe (Scottish Government)
Hello. My name is pronounced “Catrina”, without the “o” sound. Thank you for inviting me and my colleagues in Washington and Copenhagen to this morning’s ev...
Katrine Feldinger (Scottish Government)
It is good to see that the technology is working—happy days. To add to what Catriona Radcliffe just said, the main purpose of all diplomatic and intelligenc...
Christopher Thomson (Scottish Government)
I echo what Catriona Radcliffe and Katrine Feldinger have said. We do a huge amount of work to ensure that we hold ourselves to account regarding what we do ...
The Convener
SNP
I have asked the broadcasting staff to turn the sound up. We can hear you, but we are straining a little. They have turned it up now.
Christopher Thomson
I am also trying not to speak so loudly that I wake up my wife, because it is 5.30 in the morning here in DC.
The Convener
SNP
You have my sympathies and apologies.
Christopher Thomson
Worse things have happened. We know the outcomes that we are trying to contribute to. We want to be globally competitive, entrepreneurial and have a sustain...
The Convener
SNP
I have another question about the national indicators. Some of them, including the indicators for reputation and for international exporting, apply to Scotla...
Christopher Thomson
I could not agree more with our Irish counterparts that soft power plays a big part. I work in collaboration with Scottish Development International, our int...
Katrine Feldinger
In addition to our use of soft power through conversation openers—of which, as Chris stated, we do quite a lot—we have an incredible brand to work with. It h...
Catriona Radcliffe
Soft power plays a massive part in our work here in China. We focus that work across three pillars: climate and biodiversity; what we call our people-to-peop...
The Convener
SNP
Were those 220,000 views from within China or globally?
Catriona Radcliffe
They were within China.
The Convener
SNP
Thank you. We will move to questions from the committee, starting with Kate Forbes.
Kate Forbes
SNP
I am delighted that you could join us, particularly at the unearthly hour of 5 am. Each of you will be working towards the Scottish Government’s overall obj...
The Convener
SNP
Does Kat from the Copenhagen office want to respond? I am getting confused with the Katrines and Catrionas.
Katrine Feldinger
You can stick with calling me Kat, if you like, and Catriona Radcliffe can be Catriona for today. That is absolutely fine. It is nice to see you again, Ms ...
Kate Forbes
SNP
Indeed.
Katrine Feldinger
The short answer is that, any time we take on what is essentially a start-up within Government territory, the first set of objectives is about getting it rig...
Catriona Radcliffe
This is a really nice question to get and to be able to answer, so thank you for asking it, Ms Forbes. On short-term goals, I started in my role in July 20...
Christopher Thomson
I hope that you can hear me. We have six in-year objectives in the US office. Some of them, such as enhancing reputation, are not entirely measurable, as we ...
Kate Forbes
SNP
Obviously, I would not ask you to comment on political matters, but it is really interesting how Scotland maximises the brand that Kat talked about. In a sen...
Christopher Thomson
Culture and diaspora are hugely important for us. Ensuring that awareness of Scotland is important. Our brand across the world is “Scotland is now”. A lot of...
Catriona Radcliffe
On higher education and supporting the links in higher education, members should consider that 25 per cent of all international students at higher education ...
Katrine Feldinger
In a sense, you are getting three of the big priorities for all of the offices here: diaspora, higher education and—I will add the third one—energy. Our focu...
Kate Forbes
SNP
That is great. I am grateful for those answers.
Donald Cameron
Con
Good morning everyone, and thank you for being with us today. I have a short question for Christopher Thomson on something that he just said about culture an...
Christopher Thomson
There is a huge amount of potential for Scotland, particularly in the US, where—this touches on what Catriona Radcliffe said—there are a lot of Scottish univ...
Donald Cameron
Con
That is an interesting answer. This is just my personal view, but I think that there is a lot to be done and that is an area in which the international offic...