A new private sector led body, focused on ensuring a sustainable economic future for North-east-Scotland, has been launched following extensive consultation with the region’s business community and discussion with the public sector.
Opportunity North East (ONE), led by high-profile business figures from across the region, aims to broaden and strengthen the region’s economy by investing in and accelerating the delivery of projects of scale and impact through four key sector boards covering Oil & Gas; Food, Drink & Agriculture; Life Sciences; and Tourism.
ONE will provide co-funding and resources to help grow and promote these key business sectors and bring high-impact projects to fruition in partnership with the public and private sectors. ONE will focus on investment and action to stimulate economic growth, safeguard jobs and create new employment opportunities over the medium to long term.
ONE’s economic leadership board, chaired by Sir Ian Wood, is largely drawn from the private sector but will include representatives from Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils, the Principals of the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University, and a senior Scottish Enterprise representative. ONE will also be the private sector partner in the City Region Deal and fulfil the roles of the regional advisory board for Scottish Enterprise and the Economic Forum for the two Councils.
Sir Ian Wood said: “ONE is the private sector’s response to the challenge of transforming our economy. Significant under investment in infrastructure, both physical and digital, a high cost of living and an economy dominated by oil and gas have combined to present us with a major challenge. The current downturn in oil and gas has cast the issues we face into even sharper relief and there are essentially two routes ahead. A renaissance which sees us revitalise the region’s economy or a slow decline towards becoming a museum for the golden age of North Sea oil and gas.
“The business community is increasingly aware of the bleak prospect that could face us if we don’t get our act together now and take concerted action to secure a sustainable and balanced economy in the future. ONE will therefore target its actions on sector-specific projects of scale – leveraging additional resources from the public and private sectors – which will realise the greatest returns for the region in the future, in terms of economic growth and employment.”
ONE’s sector-specific and outcome-focused agenda will complement, and where appropriate support, the infrastructure investment proposals within the City Region Deal, including an Oil & Gas Technology Centre, improved sea and air links, significant city centre improvements, extended leisure and recreation facilities and dramatic improvements to digital and wider physical infrastructure.
ONE will have its own executive team, staffed to support action plans in each of the key industry sectors. Jennifer Craw will be ONE’s chief executive. Jennifer is currently chair of the board of governors of the Robert Gordon University and the former Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise Grampian.
ONE is being established with a co-investment fund of up to £25 million of operational and project capital from The Wood Foundation. The intention is that this funding will catalyse and facilitate co-investment from Scottish Enterprise and other public and private sector sources. It is therefore anticipated that at least £50million will be available for operations and projects, which will be significantly invested in the four sectors, over the next five years.
Four Sector Boards are being established under the direction of the ONE economic leadership board.
ONE Oil & Gas will be chaired by Sir Ian, and will focus on making the most of the North Sea oil and gas opportunity, anchoring the supply chain in the region for the long term, developing and exporting skills, knowledge, technology and expertise. Aberdeen is the major offshore operations base in Europe but ONE’s focus will be on exploiting its potential to become a major source of technology, research and development, largely through the creation of an oil and gas technology centre, and a recognised centre of excellence for energy-related training and learning.
Patrick Machray will chair ONE Food, Drink & Agriculture. Mr Machray is currently chairman of ANM Group and chairman of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and was previously chief executive of Johnston Carmichael and chairman of Scottish Enterprise Grampian.
He said: “North-east Scotland has a thriving food, drink and sector with 3,000 companies supporting 16,000 jobs and generating annual revenues of £1.1billion. There is the potential to double current revenues and capitalise on compelling opportunities for growth through new collaborations between industry, the James Hutton and Rowett Institutes and our universities in fields such as provenance, health and well-being.”
Professor Stephen Logan will chair ONE Life Sciences. He was appointed the first professor of neuroscience at the University of Aberdeen in 1994, subsequently becoming dean of the medical School, vice-principal and, from August 2004, senior vice-principal of the University. Professor Logan has been Chair of NHS Grampian since January 2015.
He said: “Expanding our biopharmaceutical hub on the Foresterhill Campus could create a leading centre for research, development and commercialisation leading to more innovative companies and products. We are much stronger in life sciences than people think. World-class biopharma products have already been developed here and we are home to four out of five of the Scottish companies with therapeutics in advanced stages of clinical trials. More than 20% of the total Scottish employment in bio-tech research and development is based in Aberdeen and almost £250 million in research funding has been attracted in medicine and health.”
In tourism, ONE will work with the existing board of VisitAberdeen, the destination marketing organisation (DMO) chaired by Colin Crosby, which is currently working with both Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council to become a combined DMO covering the whole region. This sector accounts for 1,200 tourist businesses and 13% of Scotland’s tourism turnover.
Mr Crosby said: “The creation of a single destination marketing organisation for the region will support our goal of increasing annual visitor spending from £340 million to £500 million by 2020. While we are currently heavily dependent on business tourism, we see significant potential to develop the region as a leisure destination and we welcome the opportunity to work with ONE on a joined-up strategy to invest in and bolster our tourism sector.”
Each sector initiative will have its own board, business plan, objectives and budget. The sector boards will be drawn from the relevant industries, again private sector led, but with appropriate public sector participation.
Commenting on the launch of Opportunity North East (ONE), president of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce Edel Harris said:
“The Chamber welcomes the formation of ONE, an evolution of the public-private partnership behind ACSEF.
“Our research confirms that effective economic development needs a constructive partnership between the public, private and third sectors.
“As a member of the board of ONE, I am looking forward to representing the views of our members as we work towards securing a strong and sustainable economy for the region.”