Scottish Enterprise Regional Advisory Board looks forward

The South of Scotland Regional Advisory Board (RAB) for Scottish Enterprise (SE) met for its third meeting in early March with three main items dominating the agenda:

• A site visit to Chapelcross and presentation from Dave Wilson, Chapelcross Site Manager and RAB Member, to see and hear first hand the work involved in de-fuelling the site and the future opportunities which could be realised in the area further to the recent NDA announcement of £2.5 million of support.
• A discussion on how best SE, with its partner agencies, could continue to support its business customers across the South region in responding to the economic downturn.
• A focus on two of the key sectors across the South of Scotland and how SE can maximise the growth opportunity of Renewable Energy and Food and Drink at a regional and national level during 2009/2010, and a discussion on the specific opportunities which exist in these two key sectors in the South of Scotland.

In terms of the general business environment, SE had met with each of its account managed companies over the last few months to better understand their current challenges, and any direct impacts or opportunities presented by the economic downturn. In addition each RAB member was also able to give an update from their own industry to further help shape how SE and its partners can best respond. It still remains a mixed picture with a number of companies across sectors continuing to grow and perform strongly, and indeed seeing significant opportunities for growth into new markets, particularly overseas given the weak pound, whilst other companies are facing a number of challenges within the overall downturn.

Gareth Baird, chair of the South of Scotland RAB, commented, “It continues to be a testing time for many companies as we go into the coming year. We are committed to ensuring that we respond effectively as SE, to ensure our business customers and key industry sectors are well placed to respond to these challenges, and wherever possible, able to capitalise on opportunities for growth now and over the longer term.”

The Board were very supportive of the development opportunities in the Renewable Energy and Food and Drink sectors presented, and the significant potential they offered to the region and nationally, from the work underway in ‘waste to energy’ projects, to the tidal power generating potential at Mull of Galloway, and growth market areas such as aquaculture.

Gareth Baird commented, “The Regional Advisory Board remains firmly focussed on ensuring the economic opportunities for the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway are fully realised and we maximise the contribution we can make as a region to national economic growth, in what is currently a very challenging marketplace. However, the strength in depth and market opportunities of the two key sectors we considered at the RAB meeting in March – Renewable Energy and Food and Drink – auger well for the future and there was strong support across the RAB for the projects being taken forward in these areas”.