UK: Biagi MSP Applauses Offshore Manufacturing Base Plans for Edinburgh

Edinburgh Central MSP Marco Biagi, has welcomed the announcement by the global renewables firm Gamesa to pursue an agreement with the Port of Leith to establish its offshore manufacturing base in the UK, in a straight competition with Hartlepool.

The agreement will create an initial 800 new jobs as well as bringing in €150 million of investment in the Scottish economy.

The SNP also said that today’s announcement – coming on top of other recent inward investment announcements – demolishes the anti-independence and referendum scare stories about investment trotted out today by David Cameron at the Tory conference today, in a spectacular piece of political mistiming.

Mr Biagi also said that the anti-wind power campaign of Tories such as Murdo Fraser and Struan Stevenson would destroy these green energy jobs in Leith, Nigg, and all across Scotland.

Speaking after the company made the announcement, Mr Biagi MSP said:

“This is great news for everyone involved in Leith and a massive vote of confidence in Scotland and the Scottish economy – the First Minister and Scottish Government and its agencies have clearly played a massive part in landing this deal, demonstrating the SNP administration working for Scotland.

 “Coming on the back of today’s announcement by the First Minister of renewables training opportunities at Nigg and the decision to locate the Green Investment Bank in Edinburgh, it is clear that Edinburgh and all of Scotland are placing themselves at the heart of the global clean green energy revolution.

 “Given Scotland’s vast renweables resources with a quarter of Europe’s tidal and offshore wind power and 10% of its wave power, as well as a historic legacy of excellence in the energy industries, Scotland is well placed to benefit from the global shift to renewables.

“This announcement shows that by making the most of our competitive advantage in renewables, we are building the reindustrialisation of communities across Scotland.

 “This massive investment was a straight competition between Leith and Hartlepool, and demolishes the scare stories about the referendum and independence trotted out by David Cameron at the Scottish Tory conference only today, in a spectacular piece of political mistiming.

 “Other major international players are also investing in Scotland and establishing our country as a base for global expansion – BNY Mellon, Virgin Money, State Street, Blackrock, Amazon, Mitsubishi, and GSK are just some of the recent investors. In fact, the Ernst & Young UK Attractiveness Survey, published in May 2011, found that in terms of employment generated by Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Scotland was the leading location within the UK in 2010 – punching well above our weight as a location for international investment.

 “David Cameron’s remarks on the referendum and independence are demonstrably wrong and ridiculous.

 “In fact, if it was up to the Tories and the anti-wind farm campaign being pursued by prominent Tories such as Murdo Fraser and Struan Stevenson, literally none of these jobs would be coming to Scotland. In every single community across Scotland, winning jobs in wind energy under an SNP government, people know that the Tories would destroy these jobs by destroying this major Scottish industry.”

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Offshore WIND staff, March 26, 2012; Image: snp