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But trying to determine exactly what that state of play is, is a challenge for all of us, not least the Chamber. Surveys of our members over the past year to determine what they saw as the key issues highlighted the usual suspects of skills and transport; credit crunch and a financial down turn barely peeped over the horizon at the start of the year and hadn't even made much headway by mid 2008.

All that changed towards the end of the year. 

In last month's Bulletin, we reported that the last Chamber Policy Council meeting of 2008 focussed on the current economic crisis and from this it was evident that the Chamber's remit was to pin down the issues which are having the biggest impact on our members and to identify what can be done to help.

In the closing weeks of the year we pulled together an extra-ordinary general meeting of a cross section of our membership including our Premier Partners, the Policy Council and our Board and others. It drew in representatives from all sectors and from businesses big and small.

At the time of going to print we were in the process of correlating the opinions and analysing the findings which emerged from what was an extremely useful and well-received breakfast workshop.

The emerging document will have wide ranging distribution and use. Working in partnership with both the Scottish and British Chambers of Commerce and our colleagues there it will be put before both the Westminster and Scottish governments as a broad based barometer charting business opinion on issues such as banking behaviour, cash flow concerns, maintenance of the skills bases, investment confidence, government support for business and of course the impact of the oil price.

Interestingly it also shows that there was almost universal criticism of the cut in the VAT rate which was variously seen as more of a nuisance than a remedy, a joke with the costs of implementation outweighing any potential benefit and little more than just playing around with the major issues.

The document is also being fed into work which ACSEF is doing in conjunction with the local authorities to guage the impact the economic downturn is having on the city and shire region; it has been circulated to our local MSPs and MPs to ensure that they are aware of our business issues and we will ask them to lobby their respective governments on behalf of the business communities within their joint constituencies.

Importantly, the workshop meeting was also used by the Chamber to better understand what members and the wider business community expect from us in 2009, to identify key areas of support for business and how best we can achieve this through maximising the skills and resources available in the Chamber to the best benefit of our members.

From this we have identified a very clear set of actions which we are now actively putting in place and which are being used to form the basis of our policy and campaigning activity for the coming year.

As always we welcome and encourage feedback from our wider membership. Please contact Kate Yuill at:
kate.yuill@agcc.co.uk or on 01224 343913

10th OIL AND GAS SURVEY
The Chamber has just published its 10th Oil and Gas Survey Report and the findings offer a great insight into the current challenges and opportunites facing the industry as well as the impact this might have on the wider business community.

There is no doubt that the current economic and financial climate has a number of implications for the oil and gas sector;
The easing of global demand and the increased pressure by OPEC members to reduce production.
The business strategy for some smaller exploration and production companies that relied on raising capital to finance activity is far more challenging in a climate of lower oil price a reduction in capital availability and the increased cost of capital.
The affects of a collapse in oil price.
The relatively high level of operating expenditure.
The findings also suggested that the decline in share prices has increased the probability of a increased level of consolidation in the sector.

The full report, sponsored by McGrigors and conducted by the Fraser of Allander Institute, contains a wealth of additional detail, all of which can be viewed on the Chamber's website.