Thank you, convener. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the 2015-16 draft budget with the committee this morning. Our approach is founded in “The Government Economic Strategy”, with the objective of delivering opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish through increasing Scotland’s economic growth performance.
The finance, employment and sustainable growth portfolio will continue to encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and internationalisation and to offer the most competitive business rates regime in the UK through the small business bonus scheme as part of the budget proposals.
Scotland’s businesses are key to the long-term success of the Scottish economy. We will continue to support our enterprise agencies, which will provide targeted support to encourage growth and improvement.
The committee’s scrutiny of the 2015-16 draft budget is focused in one respect on exports. The Scottish Government has set an ambitious goal of increasing exports by 50 per cent by 2017. In support of that target, the Scottish Government, through Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International, will launch two new international trade initiatives early in 2015. The first is the high-growth markets unit, which will aim to accelerate international sales in China, India and the middle east through enhanced support for companies with the potential and desire to sell into those harder-to-enter but high-opportunity markets.
Secondly, the Scot exporter initiative will focus on encouraging and helping non-exporters to start exporting and helping early stage and occasional exporters to grow their overseas sales. The initiative will be open to all companies and a range of products and services will be made available to help them prepare for and achieve export sales.
We also need to develop the skills base and increase the number of companies that are exporting. SDI is working effectively with companies to raise their ambition levels and achieve their full potential in relation to export activities. Since 2011, more than 6,400 Scottish companies have benefited from export events and services through initiatives such as smart exporter.
Another crucial area of focus is connectivity. Air connectivity is important for Scotland’s global competitiveness in order to secure economic recovery and sustainable economic growth, and our economic strategy highlights the opportunities and the importance of international air connectivity to support that effort. The work will be taken forward in partnership between VisitScotland, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Transport Scotland.
Alongside the work on exports, the committee has highlighted the low-carbon economy and energy and fuel poverty as areas of interest. The Government’s comprehensive range of interventions in relation to the low-carbon economy includes investing £2.2 million over 2014-15 and 2015-16 in the offshore wind accelerator programme, providing support for local renewable energy projects and the development of wave and tidal array projects through the renewable energy investment fund, and putting in place a local energy innovation challenge fund worth up to £20 million to test communities’ capacity to stabilise and reduce energy costs by reducing dependence on centralised generation and capacity.
We believe that a more comprehensive and fairer service for those who are vulnerable to fuel poverty can be provided with a properly planned and funded Government service that works with delivery partners. That is our approach through the home energy efficiency programmes for Scotland. Between 2009-10 and 2012-13, the Scottish Government invested £220 million in a range of fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes.
That is a brief summary of some of the priorities in the Government’s budget. I look forward to answering questions from the committee.