Nicola Sturgeon has announced plans to increase exports so they account for a quarter of Scotland’s GDP in 10 years.
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The First Minister said the Trading Nation strategy to grow Scottish exports from 20% to 25% in the next decade would create 17,500 more jobs.
She said the move would “make a big difference to jobs, public services and the overall quality of life”.
Launching the export plan at the National Economic Forum in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon said: “The target that we have adopted of exports accounting for 25% of our GDP in 10 years’ time is both important and also ambitious.
“Exports have hovered around the 20% mark for almost the entire 20 years of devolution so getting to that 25% and staying there or progressing further would be a big change.
“It would also be a very beneficial change. It would add more than 2% to the size of our economy and create in the region of 17,000 jobs.
“As a result of that, it would increase annual tax take the money we can invest in public services and infrastructure by an estimated £500 million a year.”
Ms Sturgeon said the £20 million funding to support the plan “might not seem like very much” but that it would have a “disproportionate impact”.
The money would “target that support much more effectively than arguably we have before”, she said, using it to expand Scotland’s international presence, trebling the number of trade envoys from four to 12 and helping companies grow existing exports and enter new markets.
Speaking to business delegates, she added: “All of us can play our part in helping our existing exporters to become even more successful and in encouraging new success stories to come into being. ■
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