ENOUGH has been written about the oil price-related economic challenges facing Aberdeen.
It’s a matter of record so I’m not going to repeat the statistics here.
Instead, I want to focus on one of the things we can do about it.
We know what a great part of the world this is.
We know that we have industry-leading expertise and know-how in our specialist areas.
We know that some great products are made here.
But who else knows?
Isn’t it our task to shout loudly about all of these things to ensure that this message is heard loud and clear around the globe?
Of course, in terms of oil & gas we start from a position of some strength.
In thinking about this topic, I was reminded of a presentation I gave to the Qatar Olympic Games Bid committee in Doha in 2013.
The subject of Aberdeen came up and I said: “You might have heard of Aberdeen for two reasons.
“First it is where Sir Alex Ferguson practised before going to Manchester United; second, it is Europe’s oil capital”.
His Excellency Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani responded by saying: “No, no, Aberdeen is not the oil capital of Europe, it is the oil capital of the world.”
High, unprompted praise indeed from a gentleman who pretty much just listened and occasionally nodded throughout the rest of my slides.
So how do we live up to that reputation?
How can we ensure that our technology, skills and knowhow are exportable; allowing us to secure the supply chain here for many years to come?
Getting more SMEs into exporting will be critical to the future growth and success of our region and the Chamber is ready and able to help.
Our very many shining lights are being hidden under proverbial bushels with many companies continuing to focus exclusively on the domestic market.
This is backed up by a Chamber survey in 2015 which showed that 71% of the exporters surveyed in the North-east had been trading internationally for more than 10 years, but there were no new exporters (0-2 years) in the sample.
And the concentration of international exports from this region is heavily dependent on just a few key players with around 30 per cent of our exports attributable to just 15 businesses and 60 per cent of international trade to only 130 businesses.
The opportunity to take advantage of overseas markets is not limited simply to energy.
Our food and drink products are high in demand across the world with over a third of the total revenue of North-east producers coming from exports.
We are home to world-renowned research centres like the Rowett Institute and the James Hutton Institute and Aberdeen is ranked 4th out of the UK’s 63 largest cities for the number of patents per 1,000 population, so we should be looking to play on this reputation to export more of our knowledge and IP too.
And both of our universities are world-class; delivering courses across the world and attracting thousands of foreign students every year.
The Chamber is part of an International Chamber Network, connecting business directly with business.
On an ongoing basis, we facilitate activities that are helping our members to better understand and take initial steps into major emerging markets like Mozambique, Mexico and Iran.
In the latter example, the sell-out lunch n learn event last month saw representatives from the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce give an introduction to the country, its domestic politics and its economy as well as their view of post-sanction opportunities.
Former UK ambassador to Iran Sir Richard Dalton sketched out the prospects in Iran for the UK’s oil & gas supply chain and why suppliers should be planning for doing business in the country now.
And, of course, we also led a trade mission to Mexico in 2015 to explore the opening up of the oil and gas market there.
We helped almost 700 companies get over £100million of their goods into markets last year by certifying and checking over 15,000 documents.
We trained over 100 people on how to do business overseas, delivered learning events on 12 markets, hosted inbound missions from six countries and took members out on missions to three key locations last year.
This year we plan even more.
And we do all this as a service to our members with very little public funding.
From where I’m sitting the glass is most definitely more than half full.
So, let’s raise one to an increase in the number of North-east companies operating overseas and to the continued success of those that already are.
Santé. Prost. Sláinte. Yamas. Salute. Cheers.