The latest national and international economic policies were being developed in the Highlands and islands decades ago, it was claimed last night.
Gary Gillespie, the Scottish Government’s chief economic adviser, believes the region has long had the type of social and economic “framework” that is now being replicated across the country and in other parts of the world.
He was speaking to about 50 of the region’s business and political leaders at a special event at Highland Council’s Glenurquhart Road headquarters in Inverness last night.
Mr Gillespie, who has been the Holyrood government’s top economic adviser since 2011, discussed “inclusive growth” as a new approach and key element of the government’s economic strategy.
He said the belief that tackling inequality was crucial to economic success was also being adopted at international organisations such as the OECD, IMF and World Bank.
But he pointed out that the link between growth and social progress has long existed in northern Scotland, where the forerunner of Highlands and Islands Enterprise was established 50 years ago.
“The real challenge is making a lot of existing policy more inclusive. This is an agenda that is now becoming shared internationally,” he said.
“If you put that into a context of the Highlands and islands – with a population of 480-odd-thousand – it already does that in terms of innovation, both public and private sector, in this area.
“The positive thing I think in terms of this area is that this wider socio-economic framework has been in place here for a long time, in terms of understanding fragile rural areas and improving connectivity.
“There are other areas of Scotland that also suffer from the same type of issues.”
He added: “In the Highlands and islands, the enterprise agency has always had a wider remit in terms of considering social issues – depopulation, fragile communities.
“It’s interesting that these themes are now being looked at a national level.”
Mr Gillespie also outlined how the region had performed better than others in recent years.
“There’s a gap in terms of productivity – what’s generated in the Highlands and islands – compared to Scotland. That reflects the industrial structure,” he said.
“What is positive is that the impact of the recession is slightly less in the Highlands and islands. In general what we see is that the impact of the contraction was less and the labour market has performed better.”