The Scottish Government

Business in the Parliament conference

Full text of keynote speech by First Minister Jack McConnell to Business in the Parliament conference at Holyrood.

Thank very much, and thanks to everybody who has helped to organise this important conference. Thanks to all of you for being here, particularly so many members of the Ministerial team, I think an increased number of MSPs from last year, and a complete conference that is twice the size it was last year. I hope we are going to make twice the impact too.

I'd like to also thank all of those who are here today, who despite the pressures of running a business, and also serve on public bodies in Scotland. Whether it is a local enterprise company or a college board or one of the many other public bodies, taking a stab at public life in Scotland is not always the easiest of choices, but we are very grateful for all that you do to give up your own time to help ensure that others have better opportunities in the future.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who are here today whose donations large and small locally and nationally make such a difference to charities and good causes in Scotland.

I think there is a new mood of increased philanthropy in Scotland today and that can only be good for our whole society, our whole country in the years to come and I want to make a particular mention of that.

As I was watching the reception last night I was noticing how much wine was being consumed and I thought the worst thing I can do tomorrow morning is get up and give a detailed list of statistics for Scottish business and a list of the Executive's achievements and the plans for the future because these guys are likely to fall asleep. But I hope that what I have got to say is a little bit more interesting than that.

There are really two opportunities at an event like this - one is to talk about our business agenda, our agenda for the Scottish economy, our agenda for Scottish growth, the other is to lay out a wider vision. And I want to take the ten minutes in opening the conference today to do that.

I think the dialogue between the Scottish business community and Scottish politicians has never been better in both quantity and quality, that dialogue is having more of an impact than it ever has before. I hope that you will all agree that in the course of that dialogue we have been listening more and more as the six years of devolution have progressed.

As a result of that dialogue we are now investing more in transport than we have ever done before - I think £1 billion this year and each year in the years to come, including a particular focus on direct air routes that was raised time and time again by business in Scotland in the early years of devolution and has now made a significant difference to the number of times people can travel elsewhere without going through London or another location on the way.

The investment in education, but not just the investment, the changes in education are a direct result of that dialogue too. The increase in modern apprenticeships, the focus on Enterprise in Education and the engagement with the business community in delivering that, the support for our universities and our colleges, and crucially the changes that will increase and improve vocational training for young teenagers in Scotland, giving them a non-academic option, one that will give them a more fulfilling and a more likely to be successful start in life.

I think the changes in Scottish Enterprise, the significant improvements to VisitScotland, are both also as a result of that dialogue too. The new focus, the level of ambition, and the level of support these organisations and others have I hope is an indication of the serious way that we approach the agenda for economic growth and the support for key sectors.

Our focus on population and skills didn't come out of blue sky, it came out from direct experience of businesses in Scotland who wanted to see more skilled people in this country and see some of these skills gaps that exist filled by those from elsewhere.

The expansion of broadband, critically our new planning proposals that will go in front of parliament this winter, designed to ensure not only that communities have a more effective say, but critically also that the business in Scotland in submitting planning applications have those applications properly decided on time, and decided efficiently and effectively by planning authorities, and we will create a new regime that will be the best in the UK and perhaps far beyond if that legislation succeeds over this next legislative year.

And finally our decision on business rates announced this week. I hope again as a reflection, and at the right time when the resources were available, we were prepared to make that change, but not only to level the business rates regime with those elsewhere within the UK, but also to add in additional incentives for those companies in Scotland that are prepared to invest in the future. And we will come forward with detailed proposals on that over the weeks ahead.

I hope we have also as a result of that dialogue accepted more responsibility. Not just a responsibility to show a leadership, but a culture of enterprise and ambition, but also a responsibility to ensure that when we talk about productivity in the private sector, we are also prepared to the responsibility for productivity and efficiency in the public sector as well. And in addition accept responsibility for promoting Scotland's international image, and I want to say a little bit more about that in a second.

I think our objective in this fantastic chamber, this outstanding building that I and others were sceptical about for many years but can now see the benefits that exist for Scotland in promoting the status and ambition that we have as a modern European nation through this symbol of our parliament. But also using the actuality of the parliament, to use the powers that we have to make a difference, to give Scotland a competitive advantage, and to give young Scots the best possible start in life.

We face many challenges. We face local challenges - challenges of crime and antisocial behaviour, the breakdown in communities that exist and permeate far too many parts of Scotland, challenges of 30,000 young Scots not in employment, education and training despite the highest ever employment levels. We have that problem, that group who are excluded from society, and if we don't do anything about that we are stoking up problems for the future.

We have got national challenges - whether they are from the past like sectarianism, or whether they are very much of the presents like our public health and the lack of exercise, the problems in our diet, the problems of smoking and alcohol abuse. Or whether they are global challenges, challenges in manufacturing worldwide becoming more and more competitive in far away places that weren't even part of our radar screen not too long ago. But also increasingly, challenges in skills, in services, in knowledge and ambition as well that will compete with us on our own terms in the 21st century in addition to competing with where Scotland perhaps once was in manufacturing.

But we cannot allow those challenges to hold us back, some of them have held us back for far too long. What we need to say is that these challenges are not too difficult, these challenges should not lead us to become more parochial, to close our doors, and to shut up shop. our response to these challenges has to be to look at incentives, not restrictions. Has to me to be opening and welcoming to ideas and people throughout the UK and from far beyond. It has to be to say that our only solution to this is to be the most innovative and creative part of the UK and indeed beyond too.

And that is in this Scottish Parliament as perhaps Scotland once did, we no longer leave the promotion of Scotland to the rest of the UK, we will use this parliament and devolution and Scotland's modern success to promote Scotland's international image.

We are no longer scared of immigration and scared of other cultures. We will instead attract Fresh Talent and we will promote and celebrate diversity as a good thing for our society and a good thing for our economy.

We no longer accept Scottish schools as they are and accept the Scottish cringe as something that is inevitable for all Scottish youngsters. We have twenty schools of ambition across the country who are all ambitious to completely transform their schools and give their youngsters a better start in life. We are freeing up the curriculum giving professional teachers the chance to use their judgement, use their skills, use their knowledge, to make sure that young people are able to take up the opportunities that might exist for them.

And we have that Enterprise in Education programme, Determined to Succeed, envied, not just elsewhere in the UK, but far beyond too, that is bringing the ideas of enterprise and ambition to every youngster in Scotland at primary and secondary schools. We don't want to see youngsters in Scotland being told ever again that they shouldn't have ideas above their station. We want them to believe they can be all they can be. We have no longer got universities that are scared of the future. Our universities are now beating the best, we want to ensure that they continue to do so.

We no longer have a promotion of inward investment, trying to rely on others to create jobs here in Scotland, but instead our international focus is increasingly on exports and joint ventures, in growing Scottish companies and giving them chances abroad. We no longer rely on the public sector to pick up the pieces whenever the problems of society get too hard for us. We are determined to have greater public sector efficiency but at the same time demand increased productivity in our private sector too.

We no longer glory in the past, but we are building on it, and we are building a modern new image for Scotland that can make us successful the world over.

And critically, and I think this is the most significant change of all - we no longer have a brain drain out of Scotland.

Six years ago, when this parliament in its original home was first created, 79% of young Scots who graduated from Scots universities stayed in Scotland. Today it is 89%. Now that increase is remarkable in six years, but I think it is only a start. But we shouldn't limit young Scots ambition to stay in this country and work. We want them to go elsewhere and get new ideas, but also we want to attract more from elsewhere to come here too.

And that is why the report last year of a 26,000 increase in our population, 15,000 from elsewhere in the UK, and 11,000 from beyond the UK is so significant. The attraction of Scotland as a location for new people, bringing people into this country rather than draining our best talent away will make the biggest difference for Scotland in the years to come.

So in starting off this conference this morning, I wanted to assure you that what I said in the chamber on Tuesday, that we were no longer going to talk about Scottish solutions to Scottish problems, we are going to talk about Scottish success through Scottish ambition, we meant it.

That we will continue in the years to come, to listen to and to support a culture of enterprise and to support Scottish businesses.

That we will continue to tackle underperformance in Scottish education and invest in reform to ensure that our education system at all levels is as good as it can be, and can become the best in the world again.

We will tackle those national problems of crime and ill health, but we will also ensure that we use our best assets, and our best assets in Scotland have always been, and will always be, our people.

And we will use devolution to promote Scotland as a modern dynamic country, with a fantastic past, but with a significantly better future to come too.

I want to say one thing though, and that is that I think that responsibility is shared beyond this chamber. I hope I can get away with saying this here today, as part of this dialogue, but it does seem to me that those who are active in the business community in Scotland can play an enormous part in achieving this success and realising that vision.

Those schools with the Determined to Succeed and the Schools of Ambition programme need role models - those youngsters need role models of success, of ambition, of leadership, that can encourage them to go on, not just in business, but in other walks of life as well. Those youngsters who want to volunteer and give something back to the community need your support in order to be secure in the knowledge that if they do that it will enhance their employment prospects not diminish them.

And when we talk across Scotland about celebrating success, that shouldn't just be the politicians, it should be our local leaders, our business leaders, those who are already successful in the local community both nationally and internationally, so that we create a culture of success. Please be part of that too, and encourage it, and talk it up, and make sure that young Scots know that if they want to succeed, and they do succeed, they will be praised not criticised. They will get the opportunity to do so again, and build on that for the future.

There are those who say I am mad to talk about the Best Small Country in the World, but for me that is a positioning statement. It is where we want to be, and the more we say it, the more we believe it, the more we believe it, the more we can achieve it.

And I think that in Scotland we have a fantastic range of assets, we have got a glorious national effort starting to emerge across all sectors of our public and private society, and I hope this conference will help us build on that today. I wish you very well in all your discussions. Thank you.