Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Selling the Saltire brand in the Far East

SCOTLAND'S tradition of financial services creativity and probity is being trumpeted in East Asia this week, in an effort by the leaders of Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) to enhance the Saltire brand in the potentially lucrative Japanese and Chinese markets.

Scottish Enterprise (SE) insisted that the modest cost of the trip by its chief executive, Jack Perry, accompanied by Mark McMullen, financial services head of trade and investment for Scottish Development International, should be offset by the "considerable value add" of forming business relationships and deal-making in Asia, whose etiquette requires high-level representation from potential business partners.
Perry was in the port city of Tianjin yesterday, the third-largest in China, meeting senior directors of the area's investment agency. It was the first engagement in a week-long visit to the Far East to promote Scottish expertise in priority industries including financial services, energy and life sciences.

Also on Perry's itinerary is a meeting with senior management of Heng An Standard Life, a joint venture between Standard Life and TEDA, the investment arm of the Tianjin government.

Perry said: "The economic objectives of Scotland and that of Tianjin are complementary. We focus on many of the same priority sectors including financial services, electronics, life sciences and energy. For example, Tianjin is a financial services powerhouse in its region, and by the end of 2005, 17 foreign banks had set up operations in Tianjin including HSBC and Citibank.

"We want to work with Scottish interests to encourage them to take part in the industry directly in China. We also wish to attract investment into Scotland, where our own industry has grown by 55 per cent since 2000."

From China, Perry and McMullen fly to Tokyo, to meet representatives of more than 30 Japanese multinational companies. The priority in Japan is to underline Scotland's offering in the rapidly expanding "shared service centre industry", or the provision of financial services back-office functions.

"We are going to Tokyo to market Scotland's advantages to Japanese firms as they have been less prolific in developing their own centres than their western counterparts," Perry explained.

"With 20 years experience in developing shared service centres, Scotland is able to help companies to mitigate many of the risk factors such as cultural barriers, attracting skilled workers and communications issues which can arise in any project of scale."

Joining Perry in Japan is Gordon Arthur, right, interim chief executive of SFE, who was due to give a keynote speech at the residence of the British Ambassador to Japan today, at a seminar focusing on the competitiveness of Scotland as a financial services sector. The event will be attended by more than 100 senior business figures, both indigenous and international organisations, as well as the Japanese press.

Arthur will also meet Japanese financial services companies to discuss collaboration opportunities and illustrate the key strengths of Scotland's financial services industry.

Lena Wilson, chief operating officer of Scottish Enterprise, a longtime visitor to Japan, told The Scotsman yesterday: "East Asia is all about building relationships and gradually deepening the engagement. Every trip there adds value."

Business leaders backed the initiative, which sees the trio travel to the Far East on their own, to be joined by SDI people on the ground.

A spokesman for the Scottish Chambers of Commerce said: "We ignore at our peril the need for our most senior people go out and win the business in an increasingly competitive market. Nothing comes to those who wait."

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