First Minister Alex Salmond
Report on Scotland Week 2008
Scottish Parliament
Thursday, April 16, 2008
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I welcome everyone who is back in the chamber after the Easter recess. During the recess, it was my privilege to lead a delegation from the Scottish Government to America as part of Scotland Week.
Those efforts were complemented by the cross-party delegation, led by the Presiding Officer, that visited both the United States and Canada.
In my statement, I will set out what that effort involved and why it matters so much to this country, not least in developing new business, educational and cultural links that will benefit Scotland in the short and long term.
Scotland has always had many friends and admirers across the Atlantic. As a result of Scotland week, we now have many more; we also have new economic opportunities and a growing international profile.
Members will be aware that this year's programme-for the first ever Scotland week-was a departure from previous years. We set a higher bar and higher ambitions, and we sought to do full justice abroad to the potential of our people and economy.
Our relationship with the United States and Canada is as much, if not more, about enhancing economic and cultural ties in the future as it is about celebrating historic ties of country and kin. The Government's message to our friends all across North America is that Scotland is a country on the move, that we are a nation with ambition and that we are utterly determined to maximise our economic potential.
During our preparations for Scotland Week, during the week itself, and during the following days, the Scottish Government has focused on delivering real substance and achieving concrete results to advance our country's interests at home and abroad.
I will outline to the chamber our work and progress on behalf of Scotland. I will highlight three issues in particular: Scotland's commercial links with the United States and Canada; the building of cultural links; and the strengthening of political ties and the enhancement of Scotland's image abroad.
I am pleased to report on a busy and productive programme to promote Scotland's economic potential. As First Minister, I took part in major business events in Boston, New York and Washington DC, which I will discuss shortly. The Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, Jim Mather, spent eight days in the United States, leading the Scottish delegation in discussions with some of America's most significant companies and investors. He knows not only the way to San Jose, but the way to Seattle, Houston and Austin, Texas, where, with the team from Scottish Development International, he helped to open doors for Scottish business in America. The fruits of those efforts will be real investment, jobs and tangible benefits for the people of Scotland.
I will give members the edited highlights of Jim Mather's tour. There were meetings with major players in the information technology sector, including Microsoft and Dell. In the energy sector, he had meetings with Apache, VetcoGray and the Endeavour International Corporation. In the areas of tourism and business, he had a meeting with Continental Airlines, and in the area of life sciences there were meetings with Alexandria Real Estate Equities and its accelerator programme, and with the VLST Corporation.
There were also meetings with major groups of investors, including business angel networks. Those companies took great interest in the changes that are under way in Scotland, not just in the new Government but in its new approach, its new economic strategy and its new ambition.
I will also update colleagues on my discussions with America's business community. When I spoke at Harvard University in Massachusetts on the eve of our historic cut in small business rates, I made clear the Government's ambition for Scotland to become a celtic lion economy by investing in the sectors of the future. That means investing in energy, life sciences, financial services and the creative industries. I outlined our ambition to become the world's leading centre for renewable energy, and I invited America's business community to share in the opportunities.
When I spoke at the National Geographic Society in Washington DC, I made clear the Government's desire for Scotland to act as a pioneer and innovator in the global effort to tackle climate change. I showed the depth of our commitment by launching the £10 million saltire prize-the world's largest ever single prize for innovation in marine renewable energy.
I was able to announce the invitation of Terry Garcia, the National Geographic Society's head of global missions, and Professor Anne Glover, Scotland's chief scientific adviser, to become the first members of the international expert prize committee. This small nation is going to have a big impact on a global challenge.
On that same day in Washington DC, I met Luis Alberto Moreno, the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, to outline our involvement in the bank's sustainable energy and climate change initiative.
There is now the prospect of the bank working with Scottish Enterprise on a pilot to apply Scottish renewable marine energy technology to Chile and supporting further initiatives in countries such as Mexico and Colombia in partnership with the University of Strathclyde. The Government will do everything that it can to ensure success and to develop a model of technology transfer that we can export globally. The potential benefit of those new partnerships with Latin America-for Scottish jobs and the Scottish economy-is tremendous. A door that, prior to Scotland week, was closed is now open. That is precisely what Scotland week should be about-creating new links and new opportunities for our people and our economy. We intend to deliver on that ambition.
There is also good news to report in the cultural sphere, not least thanks to Linda Fabiani and her team. By firing the starting gun for the Scotland run in New York, she announced the start of Scotland week-and of her own marathon tour to promote the best of Scottish culture.
In New York, she met theatre and dance companies and arts supporters who are interested in developing and strengthening links with Scotland. No doubt they were inspired and spurred on by the National Theatre of Scotland's huge success in the United States with its "Black Watch" production.
In Washington DC, there were visits to the Smithsonian Institution, which hosts the Scotland at the Smithsonian archive, and to the US Library of Congress. We were able to thank the library for reinstating Scottish literature's distinct catalogue headings-a campaign that was energetically supported to success by Congressman Mike McIntyre and the friends of Scotland caucus. Linda Fabiani also hosted a reception at the Carnegie Institution for Science to introduce Scottish universities and colleges to aid-based organisations and to energy and life sciences organisations.
In Toronto, the Scottish Government helped to raise new funding for the centre for Scottish studies at the University of Guelph. I should note that, by hosting major tourism and business receptions in New York, Washington and Toronto, Linda Fabiani drove home the message of how Scotland's cultural success can go hand in hand with economic success. She of course extended the invitation to our friends-old and new-to visit Scotland in 2009 for the year of homecoming.
I highlight a third positive aspect of our Scotland week programme: strengthened political ties with America's decision-makers. We were delighted to receive messages celebrating tartan day from the three leading presidential candidates-Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
Meanwhile, the President, in his official proclamation of the 10th national tartan day in the United States, emphasised the signal importance of the declaration of Arbroath in embodying Scotland's dedication to liberty-a principle that we helped to enshrine in the American spirit. That is why I was proud to visit the University of Virginia to speak about the priceless democratic legacy of Thomas Jefferson. That subject might trigger something of an allergic reaction in some quarters in Westminster, but-entirely rightly-our American friends are comfortable with the simple concept that Jefferson's principles of democracy can guide the course not just of this nation but of democracies across the world.
Scotland Week has also helped to raise the profile of our country on Capitol Hill. The friends of Scotland caucus-chaired on a bipartisan basis by Congressman Mike McIntyre and Congressman John Duncan-is growing and is now 47-strong after recruiting five new members in Scotland week alone. Our reception, which the Presiding Officer also attended, was attended by the majority leader and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. Senator Jim Webb, who is a great friend of Scotland, has pledged to recruit 20 members of the Senate-fully one fifth of the whole chamber-to a senatorial friends of Scotland caucus.
These are not fairweather friends or your average well-wishers. Members of the world's most powerful legislature are taking note and endorsing the new confidence and the new spirit in our country. I am sure that all members of the Scottish Parliament will want to express their appreciation for that strong showing of respect and esteem from our friends in the United States Congress.
Let me draw some conclusions from our first ever Scotland Week and 10th Tartan Day that should inform not only our future engagement with North America but the way in which we in the chamber think about Scotland-how we present ourselves and our country abroad.
First, we can say with confidence that the first Scotland week programme has been a substantial success. Above all, it succeeded in its central objectives of creating new economic, cultural and educational opportunities for Scotland.
That suggests a second lesson-that when Scotland's businesses and Government set out to work together, we can and do achieve results.
Scotland can succeed just as well on the big stage as on the small stage. We are limited only by the scale of our ambition. If we bring home one part of the American dream, it must surely be the sense of possibility-the sense of 'can do'.
Such a shift in national outlook must drive the next phase not only of the Government but of the Parliament. We should all want this country to be a global player and a global success. We can make that happen only by thinking big and carrying ourselves with confidence. That is the lead that the Government offers, and it chimes with our friends in America, who want to help us achieve our ambition.
Let me outline a third and final lesson. We have seen that Scotland week has been in the national interest, creating new opportunities for our businesses. It projects a positive national image and is raising Scotland's profile in North America and beyond. However, the United States and Canada are vast, and there are other countries and markets in which we must conduct similar campaigns to promote our country. We need to mobilise all our efforts and energy-in the chamber and outwith it-to promote Scotland's interests. It should be seen as in interests of all members for Scotland to succeed internationally-that should be a joint endeavour for all of us. A window of opportunity is open to us, and many friends overseas are showing a willingness to embrace the new Scotland.
America knows what we all know from the past significant year-that Scotland has a new voice and a restless ambition. There is a sense of renewal, opportunity and possibility that has long been at the core of what it means to be an American. In addition to our achievements in promoting Scottish business, culture and education, we are showing our friends in North America that such optimism and ambition also now lie at the heart of what it means to be a Scot.