Meeting of the Parliament 19 June 2024
I agree that we need to ensure that Scotland is a great place to do business. I will perhaps come on to that in the limited time that I have available.
For the record, I point out that our vision for the economy is ambitious, but achieving it and realising the potential are not inevitable, nor are they easy. The world is uncertain and unpredictable, but armed with the vision that we first described in the national strategy for economic transformation, I believe that we can and will succeed, provided that we are prepared to make difficult choices and to commit to sustained action over time.
Let me describe some of the choices. We choose to focus on becoming one of the leading start-up economies in Europe. I make no apology for the fact that I am inspired by entrepreneurs. I revel in their optimism and I want to put their spirit at the heart of Scotland’s economic future. We choose to do that because the economic impact of new and scaling firms is colossal. They are 40 per cent more productive than the economy as a whole and they attract investment and create high-paying jobs far beyond the walls of their own enterprises. In doing so, they help to address many of the wider challenges that we face, as a country.
Those enterprises include companies such as Blackford Analysis, which is a vibrant software company in Edinburgh that uses the power of AI to improve patient outcomes, and Intelligent Growth Solutions, which is a rapidly scaling firm that is based in Inverkeithing, and whose approach to precision farming is at the frontier of the push to deliver global food security. They are companies that are growing in Scotland and whose very DNA dispels the myth that growth and wellbeing are contradictory economic principles.
We make that choice from a position of strength. Last year, despite the difficult macroeconomic headwinds, our start-up ecosystem attracted record investment of almost £1 billion, which outperformed all UK regions with the exception of the so-called golden triangle between London, Oxford and Cambridge.
We recently announced investment of £5 million in a new enterprise package and we are well on our way to delivering one of Europe’s finest state-funded systems for creating and scaling high-growth businesses. The £42 million Techscaler network puts the inspiring winds of silicon valley in the sails of Scottish innovation by providing world-class incubation facilities as well as founder education from the best providers in the world.
We are expanding our entrepreneurial talent pool by delivering on the recommendations of Ana Stewart’s “Pathways: A New Approach for Women in Entrepreneurship” review. It is simply unacceptable that start-ups that are founded by women receive only 2 per cent of investment capital, so we are going to tackle that head-on by creating new best-in-class environments in which women can create and scale businesses, financial incentives to seed good ideas and structural reforms to the way in which the public sector invests in scaling companies.
We also choose to put science and technology at the heart of our economic future. We are already a European hub for drug discovery and life sciences and we are home to the UK’s second-largest critical-technologies supercluster, which comprises quantum, photonics, semiconductor and wireless capabilities. It is one of a small number of priority clusters in digital technology, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and the energy transition, which will be supported by a dedicated cluster-building programme. It will be shaped by industry, share knowledge and support cross-cluster collaboration.