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As I was write this, Scotland is in the middle of a big freeze. I look at the banks of snow piled outside the Chamber office and think to myself: ‘This weather is not what my business needs after what has already been a very difficult year’. I am sure that I was not alone in thinking this, because 2010 was one of the toughest years that anyone in business can remember (following hot on the heels of an equally tough 2009), and the exceptionally severe weather was not good news for a lot of businesses. But it isn’t doom and gloom for everyone, because the severe winter would actually mean extra customers and orders for some.
That is the thing about business: nothing is ever black and white. No two businesses are exactly the same. Every organisation has its own unique challenges and they don’t all face the same obstacles at the same time. That is truer of Dundee and Angus than it is of almost the rest of Scotland, because of the diversity of our local economy. There is no single industry or sector that dominates. Instead, Dundee and Angus boasts a unique ‘patchwork’ of businesses, spanning many different sectors, and that is one of the principal reasons why I believe that Dundee and Angus has a bright future.
In Dundee you will still find successful firms in the sectors that the city is most famous for – the ‘three J’s’ of ‘Jute, Jam and Journalism’. If you are looking for internationally successful manufacturing and advanced engineering companies, then look no further than Angus, where the number of people employed in the manufacturing sector far exceeds the Scottish average. (And, despite what you may read elsewhere, manufacturing is still alive and well in Dundee too!)
What about leisure and tourism? You will find that here too. Dundee is one of the fastest growing retail destinations in Scotland. Angus is now starting to see real benefits flowing from Angus Council’s far-sighted, long-term strategy to develop golf tourism, with its ‘Carnoustie Country’ brand growing its visibility, and its sales, in the biggest future market of all: China. Dundee is home to the 4th biggest nightclub in Britain: I bet you didn’t know that!
This region also benefits from a large public-sector base, with many national organisations headquartered here. But, Dundee and Angus doesn’t have the same unhealthy dependence on the public sector as other parts of the country. It is big, and probably bigger than we would like in an ideal world, but not so big that we should fear complete meltdown during the years of public spending ‘austerity’ that lie ahead. What’s more, the public sector here is often a role model for the rest of Scotland. NHS Tayside, for example, leads the way in finding cost-effective ways to deliver quality health care to patients.
Social Enterprises – voluntary organisations that develop and exploit a commercial business so that they can be more self sufficient and finically secure – are also well represented in this area, and I never cease to be amazed by their energy, dynamism and innovation. As the provision of social services by the public sector is scaled back in coming years, I am confident that the region’s social enterprises will be able to step into the breach.
Tony Blair famously said that ‘education, education and education’ was his priority, and there is no doubt that it is the foundation of a ‘knowledge economy’. Again, we can be proud about what is on our doorstep. Dundee College and Angus College continually win national prizes because of the quality of their teaching and the depth and scale of their engagement with the local business community, which means that local companies can access the skills that they need. Not many cities with a population of under 150,000 have two universities: but Dundee does. And, in the University of Dundee and the University of Abertay Dundee, the city has universities that are recognised as being world class, and global leaders in their respective fields of expertise.
It is our universities’ pioneering leadership that has given this area its newest ‘crown jewels’ – bio/life sciences and digital media/games. The potential of these sectors is well documented, and their importance to Dundee and Angus cannot be over-stated. They account for as much as 10% to 15% of the local economy and provide significant numbers of high value ‘knowledge’ jobs. The highly respected National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) has said that the way these sectors have grown in Dundee is a role model for developing high-growth ‘new industry’ clusters.
What the NESTA report also highlighted was the successful partnerships that were formed by the key players locally to get these clusters established and on the global map, such as the collaboration between the University of Dundee and NHS Tayside in life sciences.
This ability to create a genuine partnership and make it work at a practical level underpins many of the good things that are already happening here, and, in my opinion, it gives us a great chance of securing the next big opportunities.
Dundee is firmly in the running to be the location for an offshoot of the world-famous Victoria & Albert museum, which would be the centrepiece of the ambitious redevelopment of the city’s waterfront. The very fact that Dundee is even in the running to host an iconic, global brand like the V&A speaks volumes about what the city has to offer. And, coming back to my earlier point about partnership, it has been a joy to watch everyone pull together to make such a compelling case to bring the V&A here.
It is the same with renewable energy, with Dundee and Angus firmly in the running to be one of Scotland’s hubs for offshore wind and tidal/wave energy. Dundee’s port facilities are second to none but no firm will make the multi-million pound investment required to develop manufacturing facilities, and the supply chain that will service them, unless all the hard and soft infrastructure and support they need is in place to sustain their investment. Dundee and Angus has that infrastructure in spades, and the organisations that will deliver it are already collaborating to make sure that this region can offer an unrivalled portfolio. A very simple, but powerful, example is the partnership between the local colleges and universities to make sure that every current and future skill that an inward investor will need can be met.
I unashamedly see the ‘glass half full’, and I have no doubts that whatever challenges individual organisations in this area face in the future, Dundee and Angus has every reason to believe it can be successful. All we need to do is want it enough and work hard enough to make it happen: and I believe that we will.
Alan Mitchell
Chief Executive
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