Sir Ian Wood to increase investment in Aberdeen

Sir Ian Wood is doubling his investment in Aberdeen's future.

The former oil boss is giving an extra 33-million pounds between 2021 and 2026 to make sure the North East's economy can thrive in the years ahead.

That's not just in oil and gas - but in sectors like tourism, food and drink and life sciences

The move will enable ONE to extend its planning horizon to 10 years, delivering ambitious development projects within the region’s key sectors to maximise growth opportunities.

Formed at the end of 2015 as the private sector’s response to the challenge of diversifying and strengthening the regional economy, ONE had an initial funding commitment of £29 million over five years from The Wood Foundation.

The investment will enable ONE to extend its activity in digital; food, drink and agriculture; life sciences; oil and gas; and tourism, and by enhancing the entrepreneurial environment.

Sir Ian Wood GBE, Chairman of ONE, has stressed the need to capitalise on growth opportunities across the region’s industrial base to secure its economic future.

“We are heading for an economic cliff edge if we don’t act and invest now to maximise our remaining oil and gas reserves, anchor as much as possible of our high-value energy supply chain in the region long term and invest in our other sectors to rebalance the economy. The good news is that the region is now very awake to this challenge, action is underway, we can see some daylight, and there are further projects in development,” said Sir Ian.

“ONE is unique. Nowhere else in Scotland or the UK benefits from a private sector led economic development company with its own funds to accelerate action, capitalise on sector-specific opportunities and leverage additional resources and investment. The public and private sectors are recognising and very much joining in the opportunities to identify and accelerate the industry development activities in the region.”

ONE delivers its own sector plans in the region and led on securing the £210 million for innovation projects in the £250 million Aberdeen City Region Deal, funded by the Scottish and UK Governments.

ONE Chief Executiver Jennifer Craw said: “ONE’s sector boards are identifying opportunities for growth and turning these into actions and investment. The common themes – in the transformational projects we are developing for agri-food, digital and life sciences and the bespoke support we are delivering to accelerate business growth through innovation and market development – is the talent, energy and passion across each of the sectors and in our respective boards. Confidence is building within the sectors with ambitions aligning around shared goals.”

ONE Digital & Entrepreneurship is the newest sector board with a very significant role to play in transforming the economy. Chaired by Sir Ian, it was established in August 2017 to realise the huge opportunity to grow the sector with a focus on industrial digital. ONE is investing to create the digital and entrepreneurship ecosystem to make this happen. Working with industry and partners, it will deliver support for digital company creation, scale-up and growth; provide access to experts and experienced digital entrepreneurs, as well as to potential customers; and seek to increase the number of entrepreneurial businesses with significant scale and international reach to meet the growing demand for industrial digital solutions.

Kirsty Blackman SNP MP for Aberdeen North said: “Since its formation I have been consistently impressed by the work undertaken by Opportunity North East (ONE), and their pride and confidence in the city and shire is an excellent example to businesses here.

“ONE has a clear vision for the future and is demonstrating the importance of strong industry leadership to get the North East economy through challenging times, and to diversify and future-proof it. The work of ONE is more important than ever as Aberdeen looks set to be the worst affected city in the UK because of Brexit, and it becomes clearer every day that the UK Government is failing to secure a deal to prevent that.

“Aberdeen has been hit by the huge drop in oil prices, and we’re set to be hammered by Brexit as the UK Government drives us off a cliff with no plan. Now more than ever we need the Tories to listen to business leaders like ONE and learn from the practical steps taken by industry leaders to ensure we have a strong local economy for years to come.”