Green energy could attract Japanese cash
0 Comments | Herald, The; Glasgow (UK), Feb 16, 2010
THE boom days of Japanese investment in Scotland may seem like a distant memory but, at Scottish Development International’s office in Tokyo, hopes are growing of at least a mini-revival of the 1980s scene.
Not the type of 1980s revival which can probably be observed nightly at some or other Karaoke bar in the Japanese capital frequented by the often over-worked and hard-playing “salary- man”, but rather another significant upturn in Japanese corporate investment in Scotland.
And these high hopes of inward investment and trade promotion agency SDI do not seem to have been plucked out of thin air, although they are based partly on a view that Scotland can really capitalise on its massive wind energy resource.
SDI, a joint venture between the Scottish Government and publicly funded economic development agency Scottish Enterprise, believes that this natural resource could prove a magnet for Japanese companies which wish to enter the European renewable energy market. SDI points out that many Japanese companies, unlike some of their international competitors, have cash piles which have survived the global economic downturn.
Stephen Baker, a Japan veteran who retains a Geordie accent and became country head for SDI in Japan about three years ago, sees potential for large-scale job creation in Scotland through the establishment of manufacturing operations by Japanese companies with no production presence in the renewable energy sector in Europe at the moment.
This is not the only area in which he sees potential. Baker, who moved to Japan nearly 25 years ago and spent more than two decades working for electronics giant Sony, also highlights Scotland’s life sciences sector, and notably its expertise in the likes of stem cell technology.
Highlighting his hopes of a renewed rise in investment by Japanese companies in Scotland, Baker says: “Certainly, from that 1980s period, there was substantial investment (from Japan) and the UK got a disproportionate amount of that investment. Scotland shared in that.
“You tend to get investment cycles. Japan had one investment cycle (from the 1980s)
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