Scotland is having to prepare for a post-oil business world faster than anticipated, Gordon Brown said last night.
The former Labour chancellor and prime minister called for a move away from a trade-based economy to one centred around well-paying technology jobs.
In one of his last speeches before stepping down as an MP, Mr Brown said falling oil prices highlighted more than ever the need to diversify.
And he highlighted moves by Press and Journal parent company DC Thomson to open a “big data” centre in Aberdeen as the kind of example others should follow.
The MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath said volatile prices showed oil was not a “get out of jail free card”, but that it still had a valuable part to play with hundreds of billions of pounds yet to be extracted from the North Sea.
However, he said Scotland had to face up to the same problems that all advanced economies must confront – where will wealth and jobs come from in a world where globalisation makes business life more competitive and insecure?
Exports represented 56% of Scottish GDP, a far higher proportion than the UK and the US, he said. And it could not be overlooked that 70% of Scotland’s trade was with only one partner – England.
The audience in Glasgow heard economies such as Scotland’s could not compete against countries where workers are paid as little as 50p an hour – and that the future must lie in creating secure, well-paying jobs based around medical and bio science; information, digital and environmental technologies; and the ability to create new products, businesses and jobs in areas such as cancer research and green energy.
Mr Brown said one report on digital technology suggested the UK could create a million more jobs by 2020 and “thus Scotland could benefit with 80,000 new jobs in places like Aberdeen”.
“The north-east can be a leader in data technologies, with DC Thomson announcing last year the opening of a big data centre in Aberdeen,” he said.