E&Y attractiveness survey
Scottish Development International welcomed the findings of the 2014 E&Y Attractiveness survey published 9 June 2014, which highlighted that Scotland retained its position as the top region in the UK outside London for foreign direct investment (FDI) and achieved record levels of research and development (R&D) projects last year.
There were 82 new FDI projects to Scotland in 2013 according to the survey – representing an increase of 8% on 2012 performance and reaching near record levels.
Scotland’s performance in attracting specifically R&D projects hit a record high with 17 individual projects representing a 70% increase on the previous year and 33% of all R&D projects into the UK.
Neil Francis, international operations director of Scottish Development International says: “This report shows that Scotland is once again the top performing region in the UK outside London for FDI projects and furthermore we attracted a record number of R&D projects in 2013.
“Our continued strong performance and the fact we are achieving near record levels in such a competitive FDI market reinforces the importance of providing a conducive business environment for key industries to flourish and operate globally and underlines the message that we continue to drive home with investors across the world – that Scotland is open and ready for business.
“We’ve seen some great investment projects choose Scotland in the last year from both traditional and emerging economies and we are unstintingly focused on increasing our global reach through our network of offices around the world to ensure we capitalise on new global opportunities.
“The upsurge in the proportion of R&D projects coming to Scotland is extremely encouraging as it reinforces Scotland’s leading edge in science and technology and validates our efforts where we are working collaboratively with our public, private and academic partners to really capitalise of Scotland’s competitive advantage.”
Ends
Notes to Editors:
The full report from Ernst & Young will be available on Monday 9th June. Please visit ww.ey.com for more information.