THERE is no good time to be made redundant, but for NEC’s 1260-strong workforce it must be particularly hard to be told of their factory’s closure a week before Christmas.
But the closure of the electronics plant, which makes memory chips for computers, does not come as a complete surprise. Last July, the company announced it was going to shed 600 jobs because of a slump in the personal computer market and since then t
he world economy has continued its slow slide into recession.
Today’s redundancies are sadly just another example of the fragility of Scotland’s electronics industry, dependent as it is on foreign manufacturers.
Even Scottish Enterprise’s much vaunted Alba centre at Livingston, which was designed to turn Scotland into a mother of electronic invention, has yet to halt the slow, but inexorable collapse of Silicon Glen for the simple reason that four-fifths of Scotland’s electronics output is made in foreign-owned plants and much of its workforce involved in basic assembly. With only 12 per cent of workers classed as high-end professional staff, Scotland still has a very long way to go before it can boast self-supporting technological industries.
It is not just Silicon Valley which depends on foreign support for its success. Tourism faces an uphill struggle to regain lost custom and attract new visitors following the foot-and-mouth epidemic and the terrible events of September 11.
Even home-grown enterprise is not faring particularly well. Scotland now under-performs UK growth by 35 per cent and new business formation lags at least 16 per cent below the UK average. The retail industry seems to be the only sector which is holding its own at the moment, as consumers continue their spending spree fuelled by low interest rates, but given the downturn in other sections of the Scottish economy it is debatable whether that is sustainable.
The immediate priority for the Scottish Executive and others charged with managing the economy must be to find new jobs for the sacked NEC workforce. Ironically, the taskforce put in place to help the 3100 Motorola staff who lost their jobs earlier this year may make that job a bit easier.
But the long-term challenge for the government is clear. Inward investment still has an important role to play in Scotland’s future, but if the country is to be successful, then the Scottish Executive must create the conditions where home-grown enterprise can flourish . . . and entrepreneurs regarded more highly than Del Boy Trotter.
The full article contains 430 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
