Official Report 513KB pdf
Agenda item 4 is consideration of Scottish Government correspondence on its India and Pakistan country plans. Members will have received an update on the refresh of the Government’s international framework. I believe that it intends to publish the refreshed framework in spring 2012 after consultation. The Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs has promised to keep the committee informed of work as it progresses.
Having read through both documents, which were very interesting, I noticed that although education appeared on the face of the India plan, it did not seem to have quite the same role in the Pakistan plan. We could explore that issue with the stakeholders who will come to our round-table discussion.
Would you like that information before the round-table discussion? If so, we should write to the Scottish Government to ask for it.
That would be helpful.
We can certainly do that. I am keen to ensure that the next round-table discussion, on the broader country plans, allows us to tease out all these issues. We will ensure that we get the right stakeholders in, and we are asking for members’ input in that regard. We will build the membership of the round table for the first meeting in January.
Can I suggest that we continue to work towards reintroducing the Pakistan International Airlines flight from Glasgow to Lahore, which we have lost? We are working on that at the moment. In fact, I will be holding a small demonstration outside the Pakistani consulate in Glasgow to ask the consulate to be more proactive in bringing the flight back. There are huge opportunities for investment in both cities through that connection—we were able to get Irn Bru into faraway corners of Pakistan because of it. I would love it to be re-engaged so that we can continue to build on such exports.
Would there be merit in our writing to the Scottish Government to ask what it is doing in that regard at the moment?
Please do—that would be helpful.
Does the committee agree?
We will do that.
Presumably the Scottish Government has no direct control in that area, but it will be trying to do what it can.
I understand that the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau has been working actively with the Civil Aviation Authority and Glasgow airport. It has also been working closely with me and with others who have an interest in the issue. It would be good to engage with it to ensure that we have a combined effort.
We will prioritise writing the letter to the Scottish Government. Once we get a response to that, we can decide what the best way to make progress might be.
It is very important that we are able to get Irn Bru and Tunnock’s tea cakes wherever we go in the world.
On a more general point about aviation, I know that, last year, the Scottish Government developed a new link to Hungary, which was promoted by Keith Brown at the time. Is the Scottish Government planning new destinations? It would be good if we could be enlightened about its work with regard to developing new links across Europe.
We can expand the letter a wee bit to ask about those aspects.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning has just come back from a visit to India. It might be worth asking the Government for a paper outlining the outcomes of that visit.
I am sure that he would not mind coming to the committee to give us a bit of insight into his trip. That would be helpful.
If we write a letter, we can get the necessary information and decide how to schedule that.