Last night, the Chamber hosted a roundtable with Stephen Gethins MSP and a number of our Premier Partners and Platinum members.
These were drawn from a range of sectors reflecting Stephen’s wide-ranging brief as Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Energy.
Participants had the opportunity to discuss some of the key challenges and opportunities they -and their sectors- are facing and where the Scottish Government could intervene from a policy perspective or help to influence, where matters are reserved to Westminster.
Key overarching themes covered regional economic growth and investment, energy security, resilience and transition, and skills, workforce and future talent.
The debate was diverse and covered topics ranging from difficulty attracting workers to roles in the North-east and how inadequate public transport provision exacerbates the issue, to the spiralling cost of doing business with the EU.
From the need for a level runway on aviation policy and investment in route development, to the need to break the cycle of single year funding settlements.
And from the existential threat that transmission charging, spatial planning and consenting delays pose to ScotWind projects and the wider issue of critical infrastructure planning, to the reality that because of the challenges and toxic discourse around the topic, fewer young people are considering future careers in the energy sector.
Of course, no such event in Aberdeen would have been complete without a deeper dive into the consequences of our nation’s disjointed approach to all aspects of energy policy, specifically the continuation until 2030 of the Energy Profits levy, delays in green-lighting previously mandated projects and the ban on future licencing.
The impact this is having in displacing our world class supply chain and depressing the wider economy of this region was strongly reinforced and attendees asked Mr Gethins to ensure he took a robust and supportive position on these matters in his engagement with colleagues at Westminster.
The Minister was then presented with his own personal red box containing data, evidence, reports and stories of the challenges and opportunities facing our region’s economy and he promised to follow up on specific points raised and continue engagement with AGCC and our members on the things that matter to the people and businesses of the North-east of Scotland.