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Light at the End of the Tunnel

John Swinney, the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, has pledged to ensure that the business community in the North-east is given the necessary banking support required to play a key role in leading the country out of recession.

Mr Swinney made the promise after a visit to the area to talk to Chamber members, including a range of companies involved in the oil and gas sector, to learn about their aspirations and the challenges they face.

In a wide ranging interview with business bulletin he spoke of his plans and hopes for 2009.

"As has been the case for some considerable time, many aspects of the North-east economy report a very strong level of performance," he said. "Despite the wider difficulties in the financial climate many in the oil and gas sector and many of the manufacturing companies in the North-east continue to perform very strongly and the government is obviously keen that we maximise the further potential for the development of these sectors in the North-east.

"I am pretty optimistic about the economy of the North-east of Scotland. I think there is a strong base of good companies, and many in the oil and gas sector are involved in significant exporting opportunities, and that is obviously pretty healthy for the Scottish economy.

"While I am confident about the prospects for the North-east obviously one of the uncertainties is about the availability of finance, a problem with the banking sector which is percolating right across the Scottish economy. We have got to make sure we have the right degree of support from the banking sector to the company base in the North-east and the government will be working, as part of our dialogue with the banks, to make sure that comes about."

He said it was vital for any economy to be broadly based and the strength and scale of the economic opportunities which arise out of the traditional sectors of the North-east should not be underestimated.
Some of the traditional rural industries and the range of opportunities in the manufacturing and educational sectors were strong cards for the North-east to play just as he was sure tourism would play a significant part in further economic activity.

"I think a culture of dynamism has existed in the North-east of Scotland along with great entrepreneurial flair and essentially what the government is looking to ensure is that we have a range of participating companies prepared to invest in their own operations.

"We want to see companies prepared to continue the process of research and development and, certainly in the case of many companies in the oil and gas sector, use the North-east as a base for significant expansion in other parts of the world. That of course would be a very welcome contribution to the development of the Scottish economy.

"The North-east has a strong economic base and has performed over the years. The levels of employment in the North-east are enormously encouraging and therefore I think in the difficult conditions we are in, which at this particular time do not appear to have had as significant an effect on the oil and gas sector as they have on other sectors, there is the potential for the North-east to contribute significantly to economic development in Scotland as we move out of these difficult times."

The Donald Trump planning application has put Scotland's sometimes tortuous planning process under the microscope and Mr Swinney said: "One of the key themes I hear as I go round the country is the need for there to be improvement in efficiency within the planning system.
That is precisely what I have been working to achieve, essentially a community of interest between government, local authorities and other agencies to focus on ensuring the planning system operates in a more efficient and effective fashion.

"The planning system in Scotland is going through a process of cultural change to make it more efficient and more dynamic and from all I have seen that has been broadly welcomed by the business community in Scotland.

"Most of the changes we are bringing forward are about the way in which information is obtained by statutory authorities, how these statutory authorities deal with that, how they relate to each other and the timescale within which they do. So it is not something that has to wait for legislative changes. It is a process of change that can happen immediately and I look forward to seeing that take its course."

Looking to the year ahead he said: "The focus of 2009 has got to be about investing to move out of the economic difficulties we face just now and essentially what the Scottish Government is doing is getting on the side of business by creating the initiatives and support that will help business to prosper.

"The business community of the North-east can rely on the Scottish Government taking measures to invest in them to support the development of the Scottish economy and that will cross a range of sectors from business costs to improvements in the transport infrastructure.

"There are a whole range of different interventions to try to support economic opportunity in the North-east and I hope the business community responds positively to the initiatives and will make their own commitment by investment in their own businesses.

"Renewables has got great potential and the whole sphere of renewable activity, carbon capture and the development of Aberdeen as a green energy capital of Europe is an aspiration of the government which we are working hard to deliver and I think it gives another significant element to the potential of Aberdeen to emerge from these economic difficulties further strengthened as a major centre of economic activity in Scotland."