SDI Reveals 10% Increase in Jobs Secured from Inward Investors

Scottish Development International’s promotion of Scotland as a place to do business secured 7839 jobs in Scotland during 2016/17, an increase of 10% on the previous year, it was announced today.

The news follows the publication last month of the 2017 EY Scotland Attractiveness survey, which ranked Scotland as the most attractive UK location for FDI, outside London.

Notable highlights from the SDI annual results include:

• The USA was the biggest source of inward investment projects during 2016/17, followed by England and Norway
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• In terms of sectors, technology & advanced engineering (TAE), oil & gas and financial & business services were the biggest contributors
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• 31 projects were classed as Research, Design & Development (RD&D)

Overseas companies which invested in Scotland during 2016/17 include Singapore-based Clinnovate  Chinese mobile games giant Skymoons, US marketing & sales solution provider Televerde, diabetes management leader Dexcom and Chinese power company Red Rock.

The publication of the inward investment results coincided with the announcement that Australian financial services company Computershare has secured £2m of funding from Scottish Enterprise to create 300 jobs at a new technology Centre of Excellence in Edinburgh.

The funding will see the company recruit 300 employees over the next three to four years, at a new city centre location.

Neil Francis, operations director at SDI, said:

“Our strong inward investment results indicate that Scotland’s capabilities in growth sectors such as Financial and Business Services, Technology and Oil and Gas are world-leading and that these sectors remain extremely attractive to international audiences.

“I’m particularly pleased to see investment successes from China and India, as this reflects our increased focus on developing relationships in these markets and our investment in a High Growth Market team based here in Scotland.

“We have a clear focus on winning the right kind of investment for Scotland – which is secured because of our skills base, science and research excellence and our connected business infrastructure.

“The announcement today about Computershare’s investment in Edinburgh is yet more evidence that 

Scotland’s assets are continuing to shine brightly and that our role in securing this type of investment is generating real economic impact.”

SDI worked closely with Computershare to help secure the new investment project.

Source: Scottish Enterprise