The Scottish Cities Alliance has revealed Dundee City Council Leader, Councillor John Alexander, as its new chair. With continued commitment agreed for the next four years by the seven city leaders and Cabinet Secretary Keith Brown today, the partnership will work to build on its successes.
The Alliance is the unique collaboration of Scotland’s seven cities and the Scottish Government working together to promote the country’s great economic potential around the world.
To date it has helped to bring in more than £125million to the Scottish economy through investments.
With an Investment Prospectus highlighting £7.5billion of opportunities across the seven cities, the Alliance aims to attract investment, stimulate economic activity and create business growth.
Speaking about his appointment, new Chair of the Scottish Cities Alliance, and Leader of Dundee City Council, Councillor John Alexander said: “The Alliance is an important way of showing the rest of the world what this country has to offer and by combining our different attributes we can create stronger propositions for investment that will enable the cities to achieve their ambitions for sustainable economic growth.
“This appointment reflects and adds weight to Dundee’s ongoing regeneration and it is an honour to have been invited to do it.”
At the meeting in Edinburgh’s City Chambers today, the city and city region leaders also agreed to commit to work together through the Scottish Cities Alliance to drive inclusive growth for Scotland.
The partners agreed to have a focus on promoting cities and Scotland to bring jobs and investment to our cities for the benefit of the whole Scottish economy.
To do this they will:
- Take an inclusive approach to partnership working across political boundaries seeking the common ground to collaborate and achieve inclusive economic growth
- Work together to develop and agree a four-year operational plan which sets out our strategic focus and collaborative activity
- Be ambitious for our cities and for Scotland working closely with private sector partners
- Work together and with national agencies to hone and promote Scotland’s investment opportunities, taking a Team Scotland approach, building on our strong national brand
- Continue our commitment to make Scotland’s cities, smart sustainable cities, making best use of data and technology to improve services and attract investment
- Work together to inform key policy discussions to ensure that Scottish Cities and their regions have the levers and collaborative working arrangements to allow them to compete, innovate and support inclusive economic growth
Keith Brown, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, said: “Working together through the Scottish Cities Alliance, we can drive forward inclusive growth for our cities, with the wider benefits being felt across the Scottish economy.
“I would like to extend a warm welcome to Cllr John Alexander as the new chair of the Alliance. His introduction should be helped greatly by the statement of intent, signed by the Alliance partners today, which sets out the group’s focus for the next four years.
“We are all pulling towards the same goal of making our cities even better places to live, work and invest.”
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