The Hindu Business Line : Scotland woos more Indian investment

New Delhi, May 3 The land that cloned Dolly the sheep and is known for its innovations in technology and business — Scotland — is looking for Indian companies invested there to upscale their investments, besides inviting fresh investments.

“We are talking to some new large players in India and two of them are likely to make investments in the next 12 months,” said Ms Lena C. Wilson, Chief Operating Officer, Scottish Enterprise who is on her first visit to the country. The domestic companies already in Scotland include Wipro, Hero ITeS, Usha Martin, Bharat Forge, Nicholas Piramal and Shashun.

Differentiating Scotland from the slew of regions or countries looking to India for investments, Ms Wilson said, “We were one of the first regions to attract investments way before other competition came into the fray. Our region has been recently named as the European Region of the Future 2008 by the Financial Times FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) magazine, beating 38 other European Regions for the title.

“What sets us apart is the close and productive collaboration we encourage between government, business innovators, finance leaders, institutions of higher learning and the inward investors, besides offering a pool of highly skilled and specialised workforce.”

While pointing out that 25 per cent of the UK R&D projects come to Scotland, she said that the region surpassed others in its track record of innovation in business and technology, particularly in the life sciences, pharmaceuticals, energy and the financial sectors.

With proven strengths in stem cells, translational medicine, drug discovery and medical technology, Ms Wilson pointed out that Scotland had pioneered major medical discoveries such as anaesthesia, penicillin, the MRI scanner; and the p53 tumour suppressor gene.

On the potential of the region’s financial sector, Ms Wilson said that it had witnessed a dynamic 55 per cent growth over the last decade, compared with the UK’s 44 per cent and that there were more funds under management here than in Switzerland. Energy too, is the region’s specialisation, with 75 per cent of UK’s electricity needs being fulfilled from here. It also provides 25 per cent of Europe’s wind source.