Scotland was today named as ëUK Region of the Futureí by the Financial Times fDi (Foreign Direct Investment) magazine, beating seven other UK regions for the title. Scotland came top by scoring highest in the judging categories of economic performance, human resources, IT and telecommunications, transport links, quality of life and overall FDI promotion strategy.
In the announcement made today at the worldís largest international property conference, MIPIM, in Cannes Scotland also won separate awards for ëEuropean Region with Best FDI Strategyí and ëEuropean Region with Best Human Resourcesí.
The fDi judgesí decision makes it clear they were impressed with Scotland as a whole, but they made particular mention of the ambitious plans to develop the River Clyde, which is set to create 33,000 jobs, and developments such as the Biomedical Research Centre near Edinburgh and the Seabraes Yard digital media park in Dundee. They were also impressed by the fact that over 1,500 foreign owned companies have set up and are registered in Scotland.
Martin Togneri, Chief Executive of Scottish Development International, said; ìThis is a tremendous result for everyone who works so hard to promote Scotland internationally. Attracting foreign investment is a tough business and being named as the top UK region is very satisfying as we know just how stiff the competition is. In addition, being benchmarked as having the best human resources and foreign direct investment promotion strategy in a European wide challenge is a clear validation of the global connections element of the Scottish Executive’s Smart Successful Scotland strategy and the strength of Scotlandís workforce.î
The award was collected by Alan McIntyre, Network Marketing Director at Scottish Enterprise, at a ceremony held by fDi magazine. Commenting on the awards, David East, Publisher of fDi magazine, said: ìWe were inundated with entries for these awards and have been impressed by the quality of each entrant. The popularity of these awards is testament to the integrity and transparent nature of the judging process that fDi undertakes in assessing each and every entry. As a consequence this brings enormous credibility to the award and its prestige across the globe.î
Scotland Strikes Success in fDi European Region of the Future Awards 2006/07’
Scotland was today named as ëUK Region of the Futureí by the Financial Times fDi (Foreign Direct Investment) magazine, beating seven other UK regions for the title
