Investing with Purpose: global capital investment plan

6. The Actions In Summary

Scotland's Global Capital Investment Plan – Short to Medium Term Action Plan

The Actions are set out under the five strands that have been identified in Chapter 5 as areas of focus. We have brought together an ambitious set of actions that will take time to embed. We therefore present a short to medium term Action Plan to help us address the challenges and realise the real opportunities that we have to leverage in private capital investment that will help us achieve build our future economy.

Leading with our Values: Net Zero and ESG

1 We will make Scotland's values a core part of our National Prospectus and our engagement with investors, making it clear that valuing our people, communities, and environment are core to our economic ambitions.

2 Investment opportunities that we promote to market will be benchmarked against ESG investment criteria. We will enable the companies and projects we support to report climate-related disclosures in a standardised and transparent way with flows of ESG monitored via a new metric which will cover environmental and social impacts.

3 We will use COP26 as a platform to showcase our investment opportunities such as our Green investment Portfolio.

4 We will build on existing ESG investment activity and work with Scotland's investment management industry, using events such as the Ethical Finance Summit to make Scotland a leading globally established hub for ESG investment.

5 We will proactively engage with ESG investors and with sources of capital new to Scotland, such as green bonds, to help us achieve our Net Zero and Wellbeing ambitions.

Building an Investment Ready Pipeline

6 We will identify and prioritise place-based opportunities or clusters e.g. low-carbon heating or hydrogen, and accelerate their investment-readiness for both company and infrastructure investment.

7 We will work with the private sector to identify and secure the private capital investment needed to develop internationally recognised clusters of excellence in our identified sectoral themes (Low Carbon, Digital, Health and Life Sciences, High Value Manufacturing) and build investment solutions for their business ecosystems.

8 We will build demand for private capital investment for the growth companies working in our key sectoral themes, for whom engagement with private capital markets is a viable and useful route to growth.

9 We will build capacity to structure major projects and programmes for financing focused on the Just Transition to Net Zero, building digital capacity to support data movement, and housing needs.

10 We will co-ordinate the wider public and private sector landscapes to aggregate opportunities of scale that will be of interest to institutional investors.

11 We will act as cornerstone investors in emerging sectors and technologies where Scotland has genuine potential to lead on the international stage.

12 We will establish a 'route-map' from project inception to promotion to ensure investment opportunities are investment ready and attractive to markets, and that the route to support is clear to candidates. The route-map will denote criteria for when a project is ready for development and will be considered 'market ready'.

13 We will take a Team Scotland approach to disseminate learning and best practice from across the public sector and private sector ecosystems. This will involve coordinating government and agencies with the private sector to accelerate the development of investment opportunities, using co-investment models for example.

14 We will benchmark how our investment propositions that we present to market compare with international standards to ensure our propositions are best-in-class.

Right Regulations, Right Incentives

15 We will establish relationships with UK financial services and pension regulators to influence and support the coordination of future regulations around reporting standards and our Net Zero aims.

16 We will align our suite of available incentives to help stimulate investment in our sectoral themes, places and Net Zero, whilst always seeking to understand and mitigate market distortions.

17 We will engage with the UK and international bodies to influence the design of market-creating financial and pricing solutions (e.g. Contract for Difference and carbon pricing), working constructively to remove barriers to investment.

Mobilising our Global Networks

18 For each category of investor we will develop an investor relationship strategy to increase our level of understanding, engagement and partnership with the market.

19 To support business growth investment, and in line with the Logan Review recommendations, we will seek to fill the gaps in the Scottish equity market by:

• Developing a new Series A fund with a focus on the Scottish ecosystem
• Investing outside of Scotland to build a reciprocal relationship with funds that will in return, invest in Scotland
• Recapitalising and reorienting existing funds where this will support greater investment
• Ensuring that investment is fairly distributed through investment vehicles focussed on female and minority founders
• Intensifying appropriate support for these companies, such as development, networking, contact building opportunities, leadership, peer to peer support and pitching masterclasses

20 We will increase connections with institutional investors who may not be familiar with what Scotland has to offer, starting with ESG investors and thematic funds.

21 We will build relationships with the most active developers and intermediaries in similar regions in the UK, linked to the sectors and opportunities we want more investment in.

22 We will work closely with local government pension funds to identify appropriate means of increasing investment in Scottish propositions.

23 We will use data and analysis to respond quickly to shifts in the market.

24 We will develop a service standard on investor experience, aligned with the Inward Investment Plan, to ensure we are providing investors with a rapid professional and comprehensive service to encourage them to commit to further investment in Scotland.

25 We will establish an investment panel to form a partnership with government, drawing on their expertise to provide industry insight on the structuring and financing of the large scale investments required for the transition to Net Zero.

26 We will put in place a process to track private capital investment into Scotland and to measure performance going forward.

Working in Partnership with the Markets

27 Through our combined networks and relationships, we will continue to promote Scotland's broad and diverse capital investment offer to investors globally.

28 We will develop and deliver a programme of domestic and international events and activities to support the development and promotion of the pipeline of private capital investment opportunities, providing a platform to access new investor relationships.

29 We will increase our global capital investment resource in target international markets and make best use of use our international networks to provide insights, intelligence, introductions and advocacy focussed on building investor relations and promoting investment opportunities in Scotland. Such networks include:

• SDI's network of overseas field offices
• Scottish Government's eight international offices based in private capital investment global capitals including London, Berlin and Paris
• Scottish Government Trade Envoys
• The GlobalScots Network
• The international footprint of our universities and colleges
• Private sector business networks that promote Scotland

30 We will further invest to develop the capital investment strand of 'Scotland Is Now' and utilise this as a key channel to communicate our messaging and propositions.