Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 02 June 2021
I, too, extend my thanks to those who have given their first speeches today.
The motion for debate contains the term
“the urgent need to create the conditions for a sustainable economic recovery”.
The term “sustainable”, when placed before “economy”, “business” or “development”, forms phrases with which we are familiar, but they are so ubiquitous that they mean different things to different people. I shall therefore use the term “sustainable economic development”, which is about the strategic pursuit of our economic goals in ways that do not compromise our natural resources and ecosystems for future generations. As we know, some people describe that in three pillars: economic, environmental and social.
For too many people, the pursuit of sustainable economic development is often expressed in terms of stopping various activities. However, we must place as much focus on ensuring, through entrepreneurial and innovative approaches, that we build a whole economic and business system that delivers ambitious and sustainable economic development.
I am on the record calling for an ambitious, audacious agenda, and I commend the Scottish Government for the first 100 days plan. The Scottish Government understands that we have complex economic and business systems. With extended supply chains and significant interdependencies, the issues must be addressed at national level rather than as if it was only about individual businesses or actions. Simple solutions are likely to be simply inadequate.
Let us briefly consider people and their many roles. Whether as consumers, workers, taxpayers or business owners, people drive the economic system, and a sustainable system will help to create sustainable lives. I will focus on one aspect—workers. They need to be skilled in their occupations, and because trade is globally interdependent, the skills of our workers must be judged internationally as excellent. That is why I asked in my first speech that we pursue international benchmarking and fully commit to initiatives such as WorldSkills.
I commend the Scottish Government for its plans to support women in business, but consideration must be given to systems as well as to activities. There remain deeply held cultural prejudices that hold back many women and, therefore, development. For example, justifiable concerns have been raised that the algorithms that are being developed for artificial intelligence simply replicate existing prejudices that inhibit the rise of talented women.
Another way of looking at elements of our system is to look sectorally. If we take as an example music, which is another area that I am interested in as part of the arts, its value in terms of culture and wellbeing is well understood, but there is still too little understanding of its value in terms of gross value added. Of course, GVA excludes voluntary activity, which contributes a huge amount to the musical activity of our nation.
What is to be done? We have made an excellent start and I praise the understanding of Kate Forbes and Ivan McKee. I know that they want to develop sustainable economic development for Scotland. Perhaps they will consider the following. First, could we consider bringing together academia, business and Government in national centres of excellence to focus on sustainable innovations by economic sectors?
Secondly, we need to find a way to better target public funding to support entrepreneurial activity that is focused on building elements of the sustainable economy. Current approaches, such as those that are driven by Innovate UK, are too restrictive and formulaic. Perhaps both of those points will be addressed in the plans for the council for economic transformation.
Thirdly, we need to provide investment to enable our education sector to engage with international movements that are aimed at driving up standards of vocational education and training.
Finally, we need to ensure that we have an environment where it is much more difficult for people to exploit the economic system. Our Parliament needs to start talking about our financial ecosystem rather than leaving it to the lax governance of the Tories at Westminster. That is a theme to which I intend to return.