John Swinney: Why I make no apology for taking every opportunity to sell Scotland overseas
India trip showed the importance of promoting Scotland on the world stage, writes first minister
Any visitor arriving in India can see within minutes that this is a country which is very clearly going places. Its rapidly developing economy, together with the cultural value Indians place on education and opportunity, make it an immensely important international partner for Scotland.
My official visit to the country last week – a seven-day programme involving 43 different engagements across five different cities – sought to fully capitalise on those opportunities.
Central to establishing new partnerships in any country is direct engagement with senior government figures. At federal level, I was pleased to hold talks with the Minister for Commerce and Industry, and the Minister for Finance. At state level, I met with the Chief Minister for Gujarat (population roughly that of the UK), and the Deputy Chief Minister for Maharashtra (population roughly double). In all of those meetings, we discussed a number of areas where Scotland and India could do business and collaborate, and agreed to follow up on those links.
Given the sheer number of areas in which Scotland and India can deepen collaboration, we ensured my visit overlapped with visits from representatives of many of Scotland’s key cultural, education, and business organisations.
I teamed up with a delegation led by Scottish Enterprise to promote some of Scotland’s fantastic food and drink brands to buyers in India. The Scottish Chambers of Commerce also used the visit to forge new links with the business community across India, laying the ground for a large business delegation next year.
A space roundtable, chaired by Scotland’s Space Envoy, highlighted Scotland’s flourishing satellite industry to Indian investors, as we prepare to open our first vertical launch site.
An event with VisitScotland promoted Scotland as a tourism destination, with a new innovative map showing a Bollywood trail across Scotland, highlighting some of the locations of iconic Bollywood movies shot in Scotland.
Bollywood itself is showing increasing interest in Scotland, and I was pleased to take part in a roundtable alongside Screen Scotland with Indian film producers to showcase Scotland’s rapidly-growing popularity as a global filming destination.
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I was also delighted to meet with Karan Johar, one of the most influential directors and producers in India, who spoke so fondly of visiting Scotland as a child, before filming much of his first film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai here in the late 90s.
In the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, which will host the next Commonwealth Games, I worked with Commonwealth Games Scotland to cement a lasting handover partnership. It was at this point that I truly appreciated the lasting benefit of Glasgow hosting the 2026 Games. That hand of friendship that we have extended to Gujarat is allowing us to develop not just sporting links, but has opened the door to increasing collaboration in a number of areas such as higher education, renewable energy and financial services.
Scotland is of course known as a renewable energy powerhouse, and there are clear opportunities for us to share our expertise in renewables technologies. I was delighted to deliver a keynote address at the REI Expo, which with around 55,000 attendees is the world’s second-largest renewables expo.
Our global reputation for outstanding education is another key strength – not only has Scottish society been enriched by the presence of thousands of Indian students, but our universities are establishing innovative partnerships overseas. Accompanied by Scotland’s International Education Envoy, I saw for myself the impressive work of Edinburgh University’s partnership with Gujarat Biotechnology University and Aberdeen University’s fantastic new Mumbai campus.
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During my time in India I visited the headquarters of a number of current and prospective investors in Scotland. The sheer gesture of visiting them in person, and being able to discuss directly how we could help facilitate further opportunities, is one of the most important jobs I can do as First Minister.
I am aware that there are some politicians in Scotland who essentially believe that there is no justification for Scottish Ministers ever leaving Scotland’s shores.
These are often the same politicians who, without any sense of irony, like to portray themselves as being pro-business – yet they seem to have no understanding of the importance of going out and proactively selling ourselves to new and emerging markets around the world.
In this fast-moving world, to stand still is to fall behind. Every government worth its salt is proactively scouring the world for new opportunities for investment and collaboration. That is how economies develop, and it is how jobs are created. To simply sit back and expect opportunities to fall into our lap – or hope that being marketed essentially as North Britain by Westminster can help us stand out in the crowd – is worse than an absence of ambition; it is a complete dereliction of duty.
So this First Minister – and this SNP Government – makes no apology for taking every opportunity for selling Scotland’s many strengths overseas.
We should always remember that we are a nation that is respected around the world, with much to offer.
We are so fortunate to be in this position, and all of us – politicians and business alike – should do everything we can to capitalise on it.
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