New strategy for economic growth in Scotland
- Published
The Scottish government has drawn up a new strategy for economic growth by promoting investment, start-up business ventures and new green industries.
It includes an investor panel led by the first minister, more support for entrepreneurs and better infrastructure to boost productivity across Scotland.
Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said the government would have a "ruthless focus on delivery" of the plans.
However, trade unions swiftly dismissed the strategy as a "missed opportunity".
The Scottish Trade Union Congress said the paper included a "sprinkling of good ideas", but warned it could fail to deliver real changes.
Ms Forbes, who launched the National Strategy for Economic Transformation at the Michelin Innovation Parc in Dundee, said the goal was to "deliver economic growth that significantly outperforms the last decade".
She said the blueprint "marks a step change in how we approach the economy", and that it would help to deliver the best economic performance possible under the current constitutional settlement.
The paper sets out five key policy programmes, including a drive to boost inward investment in Scotland.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is to convene a panel of investors aimed at attracting cash for green projects which will contribute to hitting the country's climate change targets.
This will see ministers promote Scotland as a "test bed" for new technologies and markets, including government investment in renewable hydrogen fuel production.
Kate Forbes said she wanted a "radical transformation" in the economy and how the government delivered results
There will also be a focus on backing entrepreneurs and start-up firms, with a chief entrepreneurship officer to be appointed within government and new business hubs to provide support and advice.
The government also wants to improve digital infrastructure to boost productivity for firms across the country, and develop a "national digital academy" to provide people with key skills.
The strategy also pledges to tackle poverty through fairer work and conditions, while helping more women, disabled people, those with care experience and people from minority ethnic backgrounds into the workforce.
A sixth objective of the scheme is to create a "culture of delivery" around the other five programmes, with Ms Forbes chairing a board which will monitor progress and measure success.
She said: "As a country we will be judged on the outcomes we deliver, not the strategy we write. Words and intentions matter, but only actions deliver change.
"The task of transforming our economy requires an equally radical transformation in the way we deliver results."
The most interesting thing about this strategy might not be the projects it outlines, but promises made about getting them done.
Kate Forbes has promised a "ruthless focus on delivery" - essentially, that the rhetoric will be backed up by results.
This new strategy is an attempt to set a clearer direction and purpose for state intervention, to bring focus to where Scotland needs to be in the coming decade.
This is because all of the fine words and furrowed brows in meeting rooms have to build up to something. They need to produce tangible results that actually change things on the ground and make a difference to people's lives and livelihoods - particularly against the backdrop of Covid recovery and the cost-of-living crisis.
Ms Forbes knows that, ultimately, it is on this delivery that politicians will be judged.
The Scottish government has previously been criticised for having a "clutter" of economic strategies, with the Fraser of Allander Institute think tank pointing to dozens of agencies, advisory boards and forums in a report in 2018 which said confusion and duplication was holding back growth.
And in 2021 the Oxford Economics consultancy said policy lacked focus and was too complex, calling for a greater focus on renewable energy as Scotland's own "Silicon Valley".
The STUC was part of the advisory group which drew up the plans, but general secretary Roz Foyer said it was "more a strategy for economic status quo than economic transformation".
She said the paper included "a sprinkling of good ideas", but was overall a missed opportunity to address the challenges facing Scotland.
She added: "If we are serious about economic transformation the Scottish government must develop a green industrial strategy and invest in our public sector and the local authorities that make our vital services a reality."
The Federation of Small Businesses was more supportive of the plans, particularly the idea of a chief entrepreneurship officer.
Policy chairman Andrew McRae said: "A new government report won't help pay any bills today, but the headline measures in this strategy could help Scotland realise its long-term ambitions."
Opposition parties were critical of the strategy, with Labour saying there was "nothing of real substance" in it and the Lib Dems calling the government's record of action "embarrassing".
Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives said the paper was "a thin and underwhelming collection of platitudes" which lacked concrete plans for delivering growth.
"Transformational". Sounds good, and radical. So is this plan a fresh new approach that will blast away the cobwebs of previous thinking, to put the Scottish economy on the road to faster growth - greener, fairer and benefiting all?
Well, not so much with the fresh and new elements. It has a familiar ring to it: business start-ups, and the disappointing record of getting Scottish companies to grow, or to match them with finance at the right points. We've heard that a few times before.
Productivity - a deep-seated and apparently intractable problem for Scottish and wider UK economies alike. That too.
Skills, at which Scotland starts with advantages but doesn't seem to build on them as it should.
Add to that the high priority given to fairer work, as measured through the living wage and worker representation, plus a focus on opportunities from new markets, obviously led by the greening of the economy.
This is what the finest minds in and outside the Scottish government have come up with. Less fine minds could have found most of this on the shelves of libraries and the Scottish government website.
What seems to be different is the "ruthless and relentless delivery" of what the new strategy has set out. It's by that the cabinet secretary invites us to judge her government.
While the minister reminds us that it's been a difficult decade or so for the economy, the implication is that delivering on past strategies is where things have undershot before now. That is underlined by the carefully worded welcome from business leaders.
Entrepreneurial Scotland should be particularly pleased that, as it says, its priority appears on nearly every page. But there's frustration bubbling near the surface.
It adds that government and councils can't do everything themselves, they have to work alongside business, and they now seem to recognise the "need to fundamentally address the way they approach things, not just in dealing with business but in everything they do".
So maybe this will be transformational, but not necessarily in the way ministers expect.
