Mr Wightman asks about the closure of the SE office in Russia and the plans to develop a £5m trade partnership having been put on ice.

Iain Scott explains the region is still being serviced, but now from the Nordic office rather than from Moscow.

Green MSP Andy Wightman wonders about ensuring growth is beneficial to more people, such as young people.

Iain Scott says the focus has increased on inclusive growth and confirms various measures are being tracked with a report to be made at the end of the year.

Linda Hanna says all the evidence of productivity indicates more must be done on making growth more inclusive.

Ms Hanna insists the idea of inclusive growth is not new for Scottish Enterprise but there is certainly more of a focus on it than previously.

Mr Scott welcomes the increase in the funding allocation from the Scottish government, adding SE will look carefully about where to spend the extra cash.

Image source, bbc

This will be the first appearance of Scottish Enterprise's new chief executive Steve Dunlop.

He will face questions on how grants are allocated to companies and the conditions around these - including whether companies will have to pay the living wage, ban zero-hours contracts and provide in-work training.

He was appointed to lead Scottish Enterprise, the country's main economic development agency.

Steve Dunlop will join next month, after running the Scottish Canals network for 12 years.

He will replace Lena Wilson, who announced in July that she was stepping down after nearly eight years.

Mr Dunlop will be on a lower basic salary of £168,000, while Ms Wilson's base pay was £210,000.

Read more here.

Image source, bbc

Moving to the second panel with Scottish Enterprise representatives:

• chief executive Steve Dunlop
• Iain Scott
• Linda Hanna

Image source, THINKSTOCK

SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald moves on to the challenges AI may pose.

HIE chief executive Charlotte Wright explains there is a challenge in skills and workforce and labour, so increasing investment in automation is one solution.

Mr MacDonald asks if there is a need to tie up business support with employers having to increase in-work learning.

Ms Wright reiterates the HIE position of promoting the benefits rather than imposing conditionality.

The first panel with HIE draws to an end.

SNP MSP Colin Beattie asks, with regards to productivity, if Scottish businesses are badly managed.

HIE Chief executive of Charlotte Wright points to the provision of entrepreneurial support which can help with productivity.

Caroll Buxton says businesses feel they have benefited from various leadership programmes offered by HIE.

Succession planning and training the younger generation is also important, she adds.

Ms Wright tells the committee that investing in the people-side of benefits does pay dividends to the bottom line.

In March, BBC Scotland reported that Scottish business leaders joined a new mentoring programme which aims to help increase the number of women in senior executive roles.

Under the scheme, they will offer career advice and guidance to women from organisations and firms across Scotland.

A total of 18 leaders have already signed up as mentors. Each will mentor three women for 12 months.

The programme was launched by Scottish Power and CBI Scotland.

Read more.

Image source, PA

SNP MSP John Mason calls on HIE to insist the gender pay gap is addressed.

Ms Wright explains the approach taken by HIE is to show the benefits of closing the gap.

The HIE chief executive acccepts this approach is about working and supporting the benefits of addressing the gap rather than imposing conditionality.

Ms Wright insists strengthening communities is key to HIE's agenda.

Community ownership of land and assets has played a role in this she explains.

The chief exec recognises some difficulties in parts of Scotland which are fragile due to de-population, especially in Argyll and the Western Isles.

She agrees more needs to be done to ensure sustainability for these communities.

SNP MSP John Mason queries the definition of "fragile" and the panel confirms it is an objective measure.

Mr Mason pivots to the role of the strategic board.

The focus of the strategic board will focus on performance measures around productivity, Ms Wright explains.

She confirms HIE will work with the central board on such matters, but HIE's also has a separate set of measures to focus on.

Image source, bbc

Ms Wright tells the committee the food and drink sector is very reliant on migrant workers.

The businesses panel feeds back the challenges facing the sector day to day, the chief executive of HIE says.

She points out tourism has experienced a couple of bumper years, which provides opportunities.

Ms Wright says: "Planning for the future around Brexit has been more difficult for us."

HIE is looking at resilience going forward, she says.

Labour MSP Jackie Baillie queries support for the oil and gas industry.

The chief executive agrees the sector is important and tells the committee around 150 account-managed companies are in or support the industry.

For 2017-18, grant support was provided to 17 companies totaling £2.6m Ms Wright says.

HIE has also worked with the Scottish government using decommissioning funds she adds.

Image source, bbc

Ms Constance pivots to childcare pilots and asks if this is applicable to kids of all ages.

Carroll Buxton says she is fairly certain the pilots are for children of all ages in an effort to tackle barriers for women coming into the work market.

The SNP MSP asks about efforts to reduce the disability empoloyment gap and asks about diversity more generally.

Ms Wright accepts there may be more work needing to be done in terms of disability.

She also points to the importance of helping care leavers get employment.

How many account-managed companies are led by women, asks Ms Constance.

Caroll Buxton says the levels of women participating in HIE programmes are increasing on an annual basis.

There are much more women at CEO level in social enterprises than businesses, she adds.

Chief executive Charlotte Wright says 33% of all firms are owned by women, but only 14% are businesses while 45% are social enterprises.

48% of senior leadership positions within businesses are filled by women, while 64% of senior leadership in social enterprises are female, Ms Wright adds.

The chief executive goes on the highlight efforts to improve the gender balance, noting particular issues with the proportion of women undertaking mentoring or using growth accelerators.

Image source, bbc

Ms Wright tells the committee it's important inward investment is attracted to Scotland.

SNP MSP Angela Constance asks why Scottish Enterprise have only allocated 8% of its funding for inclusive growth.

Ms Writght asks: "Should we leave these questions for Scottish Enterprise?"

Ms Constance laughs and concedes she should wait until the next evidence session this morning, somewhat of a spoiler as we can guess this question may be repeated!

Image source, Atlantis Resources

In May 2017 we reported that Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) had said businesses and communities it supported in 2016/17 performed strongly in "uncertain" economic conditions.

The public agency said its investments had helped to create or retain 1,688 full-time equivalent jobs in the region.

HIE works in Argyll, Highlands, Moray, Western Isles and the Northern Isles.

Controversial plans to replace HIE with a national board were abandoned earlier that year.

Announcing its year end results, HIE said the turnover among firms it supports was forecast to increase by £120.4m over the next three years, and international sales by £79.5m.

Read more here.

Green MSP Andy Wightman seeks further information on job creation, asking how the baseline without intervention is assessed.

Chief exec Charlotte Wright explains that growth plans and projections are looked at with account-managed businesses without support.

A project may still happen without intervention, but HIE helps it happen more quickly or at scale she adds, meaning not all jobs are claimed as HIE creations.

Mr Wightman asks about the six investors in the region.

Ms Wright replies they are relatively small but they have been marked as ripe for growth, pointing to a firm in the life sciences sector as an example.

The Reaching 100% Programme (“R100”), external is striving to extend the availability of NGA broadband infrastructure to meet the Scottish government’s commitment to deliver superfast broadband access to 100% of premises in Scotland by 2021.

To achieve this, Scottish government intends to procure further coverage of NGA broadband infrastructure (capable of delivering download speeds of at least 30 Mbps) in areas where such broadband is currently unavailable.

Geographically, R100 covers the whole of Scotland.

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Halcro Johnson highlights concerns about the ability of the Scottish government and HIE to deliver broadband to rural communities.

Ms Buxton disputes this and goes on to say it was challenging and it is a huge ask for communities to take this on.

HIE chief executive Charlotte Wright points out when in a community hall and you start off with "procurement and state aid", this is not what people want to hear.

Ms Wright says there are lessons to be learned and applied to the R100 project.

She insists that it is imperative that hard to reach rural areas in the Highlands and Islands get proper broadband and mobile coverage too.

Image source, Getty Images

More than 230,000 homes in the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) area now have access to fibre-based broadband, the agency has said.

It said the figure for its Digital Highlands and Islands next generation broadband project equates to 85% of the region's premises.

Targets in each local authority area have been met or passed, HIE said.

The development agency's region includes the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Highlands, Moray and Argyll.

Read more here.