The north-east should take inspiration from the regeneration of Dundee in order to grow the local economy, political and business leaders have claimed.
As the region continues to look at ways to diversify away from oil and gas, an esteemed panel of experts was formed by the Press and Journal to discuss the issues facing Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire and to hear about what is currently being done to help the area flourish.
Standard Life Aberdeen global public affairs boss Geoff Aberdein joined SNP MP Kirsty Blackman, Opportunity North East (One) chief executive Jennifer Craw and Alexander Garden, partner and head of tax and succession at Turcan Connell, to discuss the most pressing issues in front of a room full of local businessmen and women.
It has been a busy week for the local food, drink and tourism sector which held its annual conference on Tuesday and celebrated on Thursday night with its yearly awards.
And these were the sectors being tipped by the experts yesterday as the key for potential future growth in the region.
But the panel warned the north-east needed to stop being complacent and said in order to start seeing the green shoots of recovery we needed to learn to believe in ourselves and our area – something the Dundonians do so well.
Mrs Blackman said: “When I was a kid we always looked down the road at Dundee and thought ‘What a rubbish city that is’. It had ridiculously high levels of teenage pregnancy and unbelievably high levels of poverty, but the change that has occurred in Dundee is phenomenal.
“Their teenage pregnancy rates have dropped massively, the regeneration of the waterfront and their ability to get the Victoria and Albert Museum is all because of the vision that Dundee had. It’s the coherent vision that everybody has had, not just Dundee council, not just industry, it has been everyone pulling together to make that happen and now nobody would look at Dundee and think it’s a rubbish city with very little going for it.
“Aberdeen has never needed to do that but now we do we need to avoid that stage and rescue things before they go downhill.
“We need to realise the coherent vision that we have begun to build up and that will only happen if Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire stop being competitive and we all work together,” added the MP.
Mr Aberdein added: “The buzz around Dundee just now hasn’t happened by chance. When I worked within the government as special adviser to staff, the public and private sector workforce were banging on our doors for years, they were asking for our support and advice and they had the coherent vision of what they wanted their city to look like. There is great stuff going on in our community and I am confident that with a little belief our best years are ahead of us and not behind us.”