The organisation supporting Aberdeen’s ambitious £1billion capital programme is celebrating bringing £100million into the Scottish economy in the last 18 months.
The Scottish Cities Alliance (SCA), a collaboration between Scotland’s seven cities and the Scottish Government, works to promote the country’s economic potential around the world and attract investment.
The £100million investment over the last year-and-a-half includes £30million for the mill quarter project in the centre of Perth and £50million for Dundee waterfront investments.
SCA officials hope to promote £7.5billion of investment opportunities in 2017 in areas including low carbon, hydrogen and “smart cities”, which use new technologies to help deliver services.
The alliance is working collaboratively to promote development opportunities around the world, such as Aberdeen’s £1billion capital programme, Dundee’s £1billion waterfront project, Edinburgh’s bioquarter, Glasgow’s Clyde waterfront, Inverness Campus, Perth’s food and drink industry and Stirling’s rapidly-emerging digital-tech sector.
Councillor Andrew Burns, chair of the SCA, said: “By working together, the cities are creating economies of scale and are driving innovation through shared learning from across the alliance operational programme and the cities’ city deal activity, transforming services and making the work we do more economically viable.
“We believe that by attracting investment to Scotland’s cities, using smart cities, hydrogen and low carbon programmes, we will make the cities some of the most desirable and sustainable places to live and work in the world.
“Working together, we’ve brought more than £100million into the Scottish economy, with the promise of much more to come as the hard work behind the scenes of the many strands of the alliance comes to fruition.”
Earlier this month, the alliance announced the smart cities programmes that will be adopted across the seven cities which will use data and digital technologies to make services – from street lighting to waste collection and healthcare provision – more efficient and more environmentally-friendly.
Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: “This has proven to be a landmark year for the Scottish Cities Alliance, with more than £100million invested into our cities through the programme of work to date, to make our cities smarter, greener and more productive.
“We look set to build on this success in 2017, securing more investment from the £7.5billion of opportunities that the alliance is promoting and entering the delivery phase of the £24million smart cities programme, taking our cities closer to becoming internationally-competitive digital hubs.”
