Scotland National Strategy for Economic Transformation: evidence paper

1. Introduction

This report is a compilation of some of the evidence that informed the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET). It is among various sources of evidence that have informed the strategy, including a public consultation exercise, views from members of the Council for Economic Transformation and their subgroups, and engagement with other economy stakeholders.

It presents evidence on the structure and performance of Scotland's economy, the linkages between key indicators of economic performance and opportunities available to transform Scotland's economy. It identifies where the NSET must take action to deliver transformational improvements to Scotland's economic performance.

The focus is on the five new NSET policy programmes of action:

• Productive Businesses and Regions: make Scotland's businesses, industries, regions, communities and public services more productive and innovative;
• A Fairer and More Equal Society: reorient our economy towards wellbeing and fair work, to deliver higher rates of employment and wage growth, to significantly reduce structural poverty, particularly child poverty, and improve health, cultural and social outcomes for disadvantaged families and communities.
• New Market Opportunities: strengthen Scotland's position in new markets and industries, generating new, well-paid jobs from a just transition to net zero;
• Entrepreneurial People and Culture: establish Scotland as a world-class entrepreneurial nation founded on a culture that encourages, promotes and celebrates entrepreneurial activity in every sector of our economy; and,
• Skilled Workforce: ensure that people have the skills they need at every stage of life to have rewarding careers and meet the demands of an ever changing economy and society, and that employers invest in the skilled employees they need to grow their businesses.

This paper broadly mirrors the main NSET report by presenting evidence on the following:

Section 2 - general overview of Scotland's economic performance, including on economic growth, employment, pay, broad sectoral differences, key regional perspectives and business base.

Section 3 - Scotland's performance on key drivers of economic progress, along with benchmarking against comparable advanced economies to identify where Scotland has opportunities for improvement.

Section 4 - potential future scenarios for Scotland's economy if the Scottish Government and its partners deliver some of the NSET projects successfully.

Section 5 - policy lessons from other countries that have delivered strong outcomes across a range of wellbeing economy indicators.