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This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007

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Latest round of RSA funding

14/02/2007

The latest round of Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) funding offers were announced today, allocating £24 million to 33 business projects and generating over £92 million in capital investment.

Deputy Enterprise Minister Allan Wilson said the money would create and safeguard 2,000 jobs and pointed out that there was strong support for the manufacturing industry with £13.7 million going to various companies in the sector.

Mr Wilson said:

"RSA is delivering real results in terms of jobs and capital investment for our assisted areas.

"I'm pleased this quarter to see the manufacturing industry benefit from significant investment with over 1,000 manufacturing jobs being created or safeguarded.

"As with other major industrialised economies, the manufacturing sector has experienced challenges over the past 30 years but it remains an integral part of the Scottish economy, accounting for around one fifth of our GDP. These RSA offers demonstrate our commitment to help drive forward this increasingly modern and dynamic sector.

"RSA is helping Scottish companies such as Advanced Tool Manufacture Ltd and Bonspiel Engineering Ltd progress with tooling and components manufacturing projects which will create and safeguard 44 jobs - this is good news for the manufacturing sector and good news for our economy."

Chief Executive of Scottish Engineering Dr Peter Hughes said:

"The Scottish Engineering Manufacturing Sector is pleased to acknowledge the tremendous support from the Scottish Executive via the RSA programme.

"The positive support of RSA has made a significant contribution to encouraging companies to proceed with investments, which will show real benefits not only in terms of jobs created or safeguarded, but with better opportunities to win more business in the ever competitive global marketplace."

The largest RSA offer from this round was £10 million to UPM-Kymmene (UK) Ltd to safeguard 360 jobs. This offer was announced in December 2006. The grant offers of £1 million to Shell Shared Service Centre Glasgow Ltd, £1.2 million to Cellartis AB and of £3 million to JP Morgan have also been previously announced and will result in the creation of 375 new jobs.

can be found on the RSA Scotland web page at www.rsascotland.gov.uk.

RSA is the main national scheme of financial assistance to industry. It provides discretionary grants for investment projects that will create or safeguard jobs in Assisted Areas - areas designated for regional aid under European Community law. The scheme is administered by the Innovation and Investment Grants (IIG) unit of the Executive.

Payments of RSA are made in instalments, typically over several years, provided that job and project expenditure targets are met.

The amounts quoted here and in the report therefore represent the maximum grant potentially payable if the project is satisfactorily completed, and not the amount actually paid to date.

All job numbers are based on firms' forecast figures at the time a grant is offered, and are subject to change depending on future economic conditions and other factors affecting the business concerned.

Page updated: Wednesday, February 14, 2007