Executive Summary
Glasgow is one of the largest city region economies in the United Kingdom, at the heart of Scotland’s only metropolitan region. It is now firmly established as a global business destination.
Currently ranked 4th in the UK’s top 20 cities for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Glasgow can compete with the best for new investment and well-paid, sustainable jobs across a diverse range of sectors. And now with investment zone status granted, new tax and regulatory rules will help to incentivise even greater levels of investment. Third among Europe’s large cities of the future for FDI strategy 2023 (fDi Intelligence, part of the Times Group), this new investment strategy to 2030 aims to build on previous achievements and access to world-class assets to ensure future success.
The new investment strategy for Glasgow and the wider city region is one based on ethical investment principles. It has been developed to align with the Scottish Inward Investment Strategy: Shaping Scotland’s Economy, which is values-led, those being fair work, net zero and sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
It also aligns with the new economic strategies for the Glasgow City Region, GRES, and Glasgow city with their 3 shared grand challenges of:
- enhancing productivity
- tackling the climate emergency; and
- promoting inclusive growth.
Each of these key strategies is evidence-driven and based on a rigorous analysis of economic data and intelligence. Investment strengths underpin one of the 4 pillars (economic capital) in the GRES while Inward investment and internationalisation is one of 9 key themes identified in the Glasgow Economic Strategy 2022-30.
This new strategy builds on the achievements during the lifetime of the previous investment strategy and action plan (2019-23). It draws on this new evidence and augments it with the most up to date global research including key sources such as fDi Intelligence (The Times Group), EY (Annual Attractiveness Survey) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It also uses local performance data to support our approach to promoting Glasgow and the city region as one of the UK’s most successful investment locations and Scotland’s premier location for FDI and capital investment.
In this strategy, we apply the Scottish Government’s definition of an inward investor as “a company or institution headquartered outside of Scotland that establishes a base of operations within Scotland, creating jobs and associated capital investment.”
