Businesses really must try a bit harder

THE executive director of the Institute of Directors for Scotland and the chief executive of the Scottish Council for Development & Industry (your report, 27 December) call on the Scottish Government to give up attempts to improve the international situation in which Scotland operates, and concentrate on re-creating the entrepreneurial Scotland we enjoyed when we were the workshop of the world.

Isn’t that what the IoD and the SCDI are for?

Mr Watt of the IoD calls for a road-building programme, as does Ms Sayers of SCDI.

If the Scottish Government invests its limited discretionary spend in a road contract, will their members put in a competitive tender to ensure that the work is done, and the tax and profits retained, in Scotland? Or will our money go to overseas contractors?

Currently, the two remaining shipyards on the Upper Clyde are owned by BAE Systems, who depend on the shrinking UK defence budget. Their orders will be completed before the end of 2013. Meanwhile, yards around the world are busy building ships, rigs, platforms etc for the off-shore energy industries. Can our enterprise bodies advise how to get the Clyde yards into the busy and profitable off-shore market?

Is it not the job of the building trade, like any other industry, to supply its products at a price the customers can pay? That might demand mass production of small homes for rent.

If industrialists feel that the Scottish Government spends too much time and energy on the issue of Scotland’s future, could they use their influence to limit the extent of unfounded nit-picking by the political opposition to Independence? They demand details about Scotland’s position in 2016 or later that cannot be given for the UK’s or the EU’s situation, or the USA’s for that matter.

There are Scottish companies who are earning substantial profits, but complain they are hindered by shortage of skilled labour. Is it not their business to recruit and train staff to fill their needs, rather than depend on poaching from their 
competitors?

There are companies sitting on large reserves, waiting for times to improve. Surely it is their place as entrepreneurs to seek out, with due diligence, opportunities for profitable investment, thus increasing the economy and the tax yield, and reducing the misery and costs of unemployment? 

John Smart

Kinneddar Street

Lossiemouth