SDI reveals key trade and investment results

Scottish Development International’s international trade and investment activity has directly helped to generate over £600m of planned inward investment for Scotland, creating and safeguarding over 9300 planned jobs, and has helped 950 Scottish companies to target international markets during the last year, it was announced today (30^th June).

Scottish Development International (SDI), which plays a key role in supporting the strategy to increase Scotland’s competitiveness in the global economy, has announced the following key results from the last financial year:

• More than 9300 planned jobs in total were created or safeguarded, including over 2000 planned high value jobs
• 950 Scottish high potential companies were assisted to target new international markets
• 136 International Projects – special projects with the potential to achieve additional international growth of £1m within three years (see note 4) – were achieved with a value of £405m projected sales over the next three years
• Scottish companies are generating a projected £313m in sales from participation in exhibitions, trade missions and learning journeys facilitated by SDI
• 500 Scottish company delegates attended SDI international market awareness events in Scotland
• Almost 1500 Scottish company delegates have benefited from Smart Exporter events, products and services since the launch of the initiative in September 2010
• There have been over 16,000 new registrations for TalentScotland, following the launch of a new TalentScotland.com website
• SDI’s overseas promotion of Scotland as the ideal location to do business has helped to ensure Scotland’s status as among the top 10 destinations for investment.
• During the last year, Scotland was the first region for the attraction of R&D projects into the UK, attracting 12 projects equating to 19.4% of the UK share (E&Y European Investment Monitor 2011)

Commenting, Anne MacColl, chief executive of SDI, said: “2010 was an excellent year for SDI, both in terms of inward and outward results, and we are immensely proud of these achievements. They illustrate not only that there is growing international confidence in Scotland as a location to invest – last year Scotland was the most successful region in the UK in terms of the overall number of jobs attracted through FDI – but also that our home-grown companies are becoming ever more internationally ambitious.

“This is due in no small part to the work of our colleagues at Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) for really pushing international trade as a growth opportunity, and with some of these companies now projecting strong international sales as a result of SDI support, we want even more Scottish companies to be inspired to broaden their horizons.

“We also have an exciting year ahead in terms of further developing the international trade and investment agenda for Scotland. We are focusing on the delivery of our recently-published trade and investment strategy, and will be working closely with our SE, HIE and Scottish Government colleagues as part of the Team Scotland approach to take this forward.”

Enterprise Minister Fergus Ewing added: "From its Scottish headquarters and network of overseas trade and investment offices, SDI works tirelessly to promote Scotland as an attractive, competitive destination for inward investment.

"SDI is a modern Scottish success story. Last year SDI helped secure more than £600m of planned inward investment to Scotland, creating or safeguarding over 9,300 jobs across the country. SDI played a pivotal role in ensuring leading international companies, such as Amazon, Mitsubishi Power Systems, Barclays, Blackrock and Gamesa chose Scotland to expand their operations.

"More than 950 Scottish companies also received support to develop and pursue opportunities internationally – an important part of the Government's strategy for growth.

"These results illustrate why Scotland was the most successful region in the UK in terms of the overall number of jobs attracted through foreign direct investment last year. And why we must work relentlessly to showcase Scotland's strengths internationally to deliver new investment, jobs and economic growth."

Last year, an independent evaluation report was published which shows that SDI contributes £325m GVA annually to the Scottish economy through its inward investment and internationalisation activities.

Findings from the evaluation suggest that for every £1 spent by SDI on attracting inward investment to Scotland, a further £11 is generated for the Scottish economy, while internationalisation activity generates an additional £13 for every £1 invested by SDI.

SDI is a joint venture between Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Government and is responsible for attracting foreign investment into Scotland, as well as helping Scottish businesses do business overseas.

ENDS

1. To hear from some businesses that have been supported by SDI, read our new case studies on Harviestoun, NB Surveys Global and Cream O Galloway. Otherwise, to find out about the experiences of global companies investing in Scotland, click here.
2. High Value Jobs are defined as those in Research Design & Development and/or earning in excess of £31k a year
3. The inward investment figure (£600m) is based on projected capital expenditure figures and does not include additional benefits to the economy from wages and purchases in the Scottish economy resulting from the operational activities of the companies concerned.
4. ‘International Projects’ is a new performance measure which allows SDI to better evaluate its efforts to deliver deeper support for businesses with the potential to have a disproportionate impact on economic growth in Scotland. To be considered as an International Project, businesses must have the potential to achieve international growth of £1m within three years.
5. Projected sales figure (£313m) is based on figures supplied to SDI from companies participating in SDI trade missions, exhibitions and learning journeys.
6. The Smart Exporter project is a collaboration between Scottish Development International and Scottish Chambers International which aims to equip all Scottish businesses with the skills and expertise needed to enter new international markets.
7. TalentScotland is a talent attraction project that showcases Scotland as an outstanding destination to live, work and study. The new TalentScotland website sees the integration of three existing services to provide a central resource for businesses and individuals seeking information about jobs, companies, academic activities and lifestyle in Scotland.
8. The return on investment figure of 13:1 for internationalisation is based on sales already achieved plus sales forecast by the companies. If the sales already achieved figure is used on its own (i.e. without forecasted sales ), the ratio is 7:1