Scottish digital sector attracts strong foreign investment
US leads the way as tech projects attract cash
Credit: Pixabay
The digital sector generated the joint highest number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Scotland last year, according to a new report by EY.
With 16 FDI projects based in the digital sector north of the border, EY rated Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen in the top ten UK cities outside of London for attracting investment, while Dunfermline, the Highlands and Islands, and the south of Scotland also attracted sizable projects.
The two sectors generating the highest numbers of FDI projects in Scotland were digital and business services, which both generated 16 projects, with digital up from 14 projects in 2017 and business services down from 23 projects.
Related content
- Digital ‘equally important’ as transport infrastructure, says Scottish minister
- A vision for a Digital Scotland
- Universities unveil £650m plan to make Edinburgh ‘data capital of Europe’
Meanwhile, the machinery and equipment sector generated 12 projects, up from eight in 2017.
Overall 94 projects were established in 2018, down by 22 from the previous year, with the US listed as the top source of FDI in Scotland, followed by Germany and Switzerland, and then Norway.
Mark Gregory, EY’s chief UK economist, said: “What’s key in the 2019 survey is to look at how regions are performing outside of London. When we do that, we see very similar trends emerging and in that context Scotland is standing ground.
“While FDI projects in London held firm in 2018, the decline in projects across most regions of the UK appeared to reflect the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. Fifteen percent of companies in the 2019 survey of international investors said they have put UK investment plans on hold as a result of the vote to leave the EU. The US continued to contribute the most Scottish projects of any country in 2018, but there were some interesting shifts lower down the ranking with Danish, German, Swiss and Japanese projects all increasing.
Share this page
Tags
Categories
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM READERS
Please login to post a comment or register for a free account.
Related Articles
Scottish institutions to work with consenting older citizens to track energy usage
Last year saw a big rise, but comfortable majority still work on-site
Up to 11 million UK accounts recently saw personal information published online
Related Sponsored Articles
There are many reasons to keep your Oracle workloads running on local servers. But there are even more reasons to move them to the cloud as part of a wider digital transition strategy. Six Degrees...
Engage Process explains how to ensure that process remains at the heart of your management programs - and how to keep undue pressure from those processes
As misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine spreads, Granicus outlines key considerations for local government when delivering a successful vaccine communications campaign