Prospectus
Economic strategy for Scotland
by
Paul Kyle
The Scottish Government has launched its new Economic Strategy with the purpose of creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth.
At the launch of the strategy at Glasgow University in November, First Minister Alex Salmond said the key to building a world class economy in Scotland was to match the talents of people to key competitive advantages.
The Economic Strategy identifies five Strategic Priorities that are most critical to economic growth:
- Learning, Skills and Well-being
- Supportive Business Environment
- Infrastructure Development and Place
- Effective Government
- Equity
Raising Scotland's productivity to the UK average by 2011 is one goal laid out in the strategy; another target is to match the average European economic growth rate by 2017. Over the last 30 years, Scotland's growth has averaged just 1.8 per cent a year - around a half of the average rate of growth for small European countries.
It is however the last two pages which are important to note - the difficult bit of any strategy of this type is in the implementation. Here it sets out that the Strategy will be used to;
Direct the activities of key bodies such as Scottish Enterprise, Visit Scotland, Transport Scotland, Scottish Water etc.
Direct the development of an outcome agreement with local authorities that will enable local government to contribute effectively to the country’s sustainable economic growth and
Direct discussion with UK Government and the EU in areas which will influence the achievement of sustainable economic growth in Scotland
For more detail, the strategy can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/202993/0054092.pdf
|
