Ministerial Trade Board minutes April 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Richard Lochhead, Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade (Chair)
• Iain Baxter, Scotland Food & Drink
• Simon Forrest, Nova Innovation
• Richard Knox, Verlume
• Sarah Lynagh, Fios Genomic
• James Varga, First Carbon Investments
• Rachel Gwyon, UK Government, Department for Business and Trade (Observer)
• Allan Cannon, Krucial (Guest)
• Jan Robertson, Scottish Development International (Guest)
• Julie Morrison, Scottish Development International (Guest)
• David Barnes, Scottish Government, Trade Policy (Guest)
• Julia Brown, Scottish Government, Trade Policy (Guest)
• James McLellan, Scottish Government, Export and Inward Investment Policy
• Colin Robertson, Scottish Government, Export Support
• Victoria Roberts, Scottish Government, Export Support (Secretariat)

Apologies:

Gary White David Currie, Paul Sheerin, Gillian Docherty, Marcus Pickering, Russell Dalgleish, Eric Balish, Mairi Spowage, and Reuben Aitken.

Items and actions

Introductory remarks

The Chair welcomed members to their last Trade Board meeting under the current terms of reference, and thanked members for their contributions, insights, and feedback over the last two years.

The Chair shared a short overview of the planned agenda, highlighted recent developments within government and noted member apologies.

Supporting export growth in the Scottish tech sector

The Board heard from guest speakers Scottish Development International (SDI) and Krucial’s CEO, Allan Cannon as they shared their experience of supporting, operating, and exporting in the Tech sector. In discussion, the following key points were captured;

• success of recent SDI and DBT mission programmes to securing business and investors for growth
• the need to address access to capital to support scaling businesses and SMEs in Scotland
• SNIB identified as a great co-investor and there is also a need to partner with mature venture capital
• importance of a stable regulatory environment
• governments to share the risk in the early stages identified as a future opportunity
• ‘Seek to Solve’ Grant funding was helpful when previously available
• mission programmes developed with purpose lead to strong return on investment for companies involved

Actions arising from the discussions were:

• material from SDIs presentation to be shared with the Chair to help highlight the positive work and growth across the tech sector
• the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy, recent keynote speech on the economy to be shared with members

Post-Brexit Free Trade Agreements

Officials provided an overview of Trade Policy and the developments since Brexit. Discussions focussed on how to work better with business and reduce barriers to trade. Key points captured below;

• pre Brexit-Passport to Europe were key when exporting, many FinTech companies now look out with Europe to avoid the complicated regulatory barriers
• replicating the success of the Scottish Services Trade Forum for ‘Goods’ may be a good way to hear direct from business

Any other business

This was the last meeting of the Trade Board under the current members terms of reference. Officials will be in touch to discuss the Trade Board review process.

Next meeting 

To be confirmed