INTEREST in the Highlands and Islands from investors in Asia Pacific is at an ‘all-time high’, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has said.
Stuart Black, HIE chief executive, visited Tokyo, Seoul, and Guangzhou last week to meet with key contacts and existing and potential investors.
The trip was organised by Scottish Development International (SDI) teams based in the Asia Pacific region. It included meetings and factory tours with companies such as Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI), Hyundai, and Mitsui – all of which have existing interests in the Highlands and Islands.
SEI is building a £350m cable-manufacturing factory at Nigg. Mitsui recently acquired Global Energy Group’s offshore business, which includes Port of Nigg, Global Energy (Fabrication), and Global Energy Service Holdings. Whilst Hyundai has a memorandum of understanding with the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, and HIE to explore opportunities in floating offshore wind.
Stuart Black also met with other potential investors to discuss their projects and explore how HIE can help secure them for the region. He said inward investment interest is diverse and across many sectors, but renewable energy is the dominant theme.
He continued, “There’s no doubt that investment from companies owned outside of Scotland is increasingly important in growing the economy of our region. What was clear from our visit last week is that the level of interest in our region from the Asia-Pacific has never been higher. There are many reasons for this, not least our report published last year outlining £100bn of opportunities, most of which is linked to renewable energy.
“We’ve seen some significant investments confirmed in recent years and can be confident we’ll see further similar investments in future. These projects will help make sure Scotland has the infrastructure and manufacturing capacity to fully benefit from the growth in the offshore wind sector in particular.”
