Scottish independence: ‘Foreign investment boost’

Alex Salmond is keen to invite a flood of investment into an independent Scotland. Picture: Getty

• An independent Scotland would receive a surge of foreign investment, SNP research has claimed

• Investment levels would be comparable to those seen in Eastern Bloc countries after the fall of Communismn in Russia

The party said that a post-independence nation would see foreign direct investment (FDI) comparable to that seen in former Soviet Union countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

And the report claims that FDI levels may even exceed those seen in the Eastern Bloc because Scotland already has an established market economy.

The report says: “There is evidence some of the most recently independent small countries in Europe experience a surge in overseas investment in the immediate aftermath of independence.

“Experts and business people believe this could be mirrored in Scotland - particularly given many of those countries in the 1990s did not have as developed a market economy as Scotland.”

Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, director of Business for Scotland, a pro-independence organisation, said that an independent Scotland would need to confidently sell itself as a “national brand”.

“We know independence can benefit economies in several ways and a growth in foreign director investment is one of them.

“The internationalism of trade and even the confidence that comes from self-determination can lead to an increase in entrepreneurial activity.

“I was involved in FDI in Scottish Enterprise in the 1990s. FDI is like a sales process and, as with all sale processes, getting your foot in the door as a national brand.

Mr MacIntyre-Kemp also told The Herald: “A cultural standing in the world helps you build relationships, and the support packages combined with new connections to world markets and a confident economy outlook can close the deal.”

The SNP’s Westminster Treasury spokesman Stewart Hosie called the claims “a positive and sensible assessment”, before adding: “What is clear is that countries emerging into the global marketplace as newly independent places to do business have attracted surges of investment, and there is every reason to believe that the same will apply in Scotland.”

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