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Plenary, 26 Mar 2003

26 Mar 2003 · S1 · Plenary

Item of business

Scottish Economy

Livingstone, Marilyn Lab Kirkcaldy Watch on SPTV

I hope that Alex Neil will have achieved retirement in 40 years' time.

As someone who has been a member of the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee for the whole parliamentary session, I am proud of the contribution that the Parliament has made to shaping a skilled Scottish economy that is capable of coping with the current difficulties in the global economic market and a Scotland that is ready to capitalise on the opportunities for enterprise in the future. I believe that the devolved Parliament has meant that the political contribution to shaping Scotland's economy has been greater than before and more matched to Scotland's needs.

I am pleased that the Scottish Executive has made it clear that it is making economic growth a priority. Scotland already benefits from high employment, but we need to ensure that that contributes to greater economic growth and that we get even more people back into work. Such aims are a far cry from the days of the Tories, who claimed that unemployment was a price worth paying. That was certainly not the case for the people in my area, many of whom, thanks to the Tories, lost their jobs, especially in the coal-mining industry.

Labour has got people back into work. People have been given the pride that comes from sustaining themselves and their families and from raising their aspirations. Labour recognises that our current rate of economic growth is, as the minister said, not good enough and does not match our aspirations for our country. We have put in place infrastructure and investment to change that.

Our partnership with the Labour Government in Westminster has provided us with economic conditions that we could only have dreamed of a decade ago. We have low unemployment, low interest rates and low inflation. Like Bristow Muldoon, I have every faith in the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his economic policies.

I take this opportunity to thank Iain Gray for his recent visit to my constituency to discuss with Fife Council and Scottish Enterprise their action plan for an economic and social strategy for Kirkcaldy and its travel-to-work area. I thank the Executive for agreeing to continue to support that strategy. We need to ensure that the increase in tourism from the Zeebrugge ferry benefits everyone who lives in Fife.

I believe that the Executive has the right strategy to create economic growth, as the strategy invests in enterprise, education and our people. In my constituency as in others, we can now see a learning environment from which young people and those returning to learning are benefiting.

We know that the best way for Scotland to compete is by improving the skills and knowledge of our people. We are capitalising on that by investing in the new technology institutes, which Richard Simpson mentioned. The technology institutes will turn good ideas into good business and they are one of the things that Alex Neil and other members of the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee, including me, have said that we need. That is now being done.

By expanding the modern apprenticeship schemes, we will ensure that our people have the skills that they need for the modern workplace. By rolling out education maintenance allowances, we may be able to do even better than at present by getting more than 50 per cent of our students to continue into education—whether that be further or higher education, academic or vocational.

As the minister said, there is no quick fix. Only last week, we showed our long-term vision to create a strong economy in Scotland through encouraging enterprise education in our schools. Last week, the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee heard at first hand from primary school children who showed their enthusiasm for the project. The programme is working. As we have heard, the Executive has announced that it is working with entrepreneurs, including Tom Farmer, on our enterprise programme so that education for work and enterprise will be embedded in every school in Scotland from primary 1 to secondary 6.

Our commitment to investment in skills, in our people and in enterprise is a sharp contrast to the approach of the Tories and the SNP. They would cut investment in training and enterprise schemes for the short-term electoral benefit of cutting business rates. That is not the way in which to build long-term prosperity for Scotland and it is not a responsible way in which to meet the challenges that we face. It is typical of the Opposition's opportunism.

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Plenary, 26 Mar 2003

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