Links with China
The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-06993, in the name of Graeme Pearson, on enhancing enterprise for Scotland and China. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises and celebrates both the historical and contemporary links that exist between Scotland and China; notes that China is currently the second largest economy in the world, with many experts predicting that it will overtake the US as the largest within the next decade; supports all efforts to foster trade links between Scotland and China, including establishing a direct flight path from Scotland to China, but is concerned that visa regulations are not conducive to Chinese businesses operating in Scotland and vice versa; endorses the educational links that exist between Scotland and China, including what it understands is the high number of Chinese students who choose to study at Scottish universities and the links between schools in the south of Scotland and their Chinese counterparts; welcomes these links, and notes calls for the encouragement of the learning of Mandarin and Cantonese in Scottish schools and their twinning with Chinese schools.
12:34
I thank you, Presiding Officer, and the Parliament for giving me the opportunity to open this debate.
I am also grateful to the Minister for External Affairs and International Development for taking time out to play a part in our debate. I hope that, at the conclusion of our discussions, we will have aided the Government in focusing in on some of the main issues that have been raised throughout Scotland and, in particular, in the cross-party group on China about developing and enhancing enterprise for Scotland and for China.
Next month will mark the 64th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and will also mark a remarkable transformation in a country that is on course to replace America as the world’s largest economy. It is vital that Scotland does all that it can to forge close economic links with China to the benefit of both our countries.
As convener of the cross-party group on China, I am aware of several needs that have been identified regularly that should be the focus of work by the Government. To assist members, I have bulletpointed those needs.
The first is the need to establish direct flights between Scotland and China. Even one flight per month is deemed to improve our relationships with people who would engage with Scotland and who want to know more about us.
The second issue, which is a difficult one, is the need to improve the visa/immigration process for Chinese visitors, investors and educationalists.
Thirdly, we need to increase and improve the opportunities that Scottish children have to learn Chinese languages, the use of which will become an important relationship-building exercise and will facilitate understanding in both directions between the two countries. We also need to help and encourage Scottish schools at primary and secondary level to twin with schools in China.
In addition, we need to support small and medium-sized enterprises in establishing business links with China. We have a good track record with large organisations on a global level, but the small and medium-sized enterprises that find it hard to finance trips to China and to do the kind of research that is required represent a real challenge. The creation of a web page, Twitter and Facebook environment to encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas among Scottish entrepreneurs and to provide a connection with the Chinese audience would be an important way of placing the brand of Scotland at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
Finally, in the year ahead, in which we hope that the homecoming will be a success for Scotland, why would the Government not want to consider a homecoming for Chinese students who have studied here successfully in previous decades and who still love our country, to encourage them to return to Scotland and bring with them a knowledge of where China is today?
I hope that it is not so much a case of whether we should do those things, but when we do them.
According to VisitScotland, the number of Chinese visitors to Scotland is continuing to rise exponentially. The Scottish Parliament’s European and External Relations Committee has agreed that the establishment of a direct air link is vital. If we want to strengthen our economic links with China, we must also ensure that we minimise the barriers that exist to co-operation and trade. At meetings of the cross-party group on China, I regularly hear stories of Chinese businesses that are looking to invest in Scotland, but which are deterred by difficulties with visas and immigration. Although I acknowledge that those are complicated issues that are reserved to the United Kingdom Parliament, the Scottish Government must examine all available avenues to minimise barriers to trade and to encourage our colleagues at UK level to resolve some of those issues.
The financial figures from the past few years illustrate how important trade with China is to Scotland. In the first half of 2012, trade between Scotland and China was worth almost £800 million, which represented growth of 14.4 per cent from the previous year. As well as including traditional goods such as salmon and whisky, exports now extend to chemical-related products and machinery and transport equipment, exports of which have increased by more than 40 per cent.
The fields of telecommunications, science and technology, information and communication technology and renewable energy are all areas in which China seeks to expand. Even in the global economic crisis, there has been an expansion of foreign banks in China, to the extent that their profits have increased by 109 per cent. That further illustrates the importance of Scotland’s relationship with China.
We must also bear it in mind that, over the past 5,000 years of history, China has contributed a wealth of literature, art, philosophy and science to the world. China is on its way to becoming the largest economic power in the history of the world. Its progress is built on a number of defining values that we should bear in mind.
First, the needs of the group and society are prioritised above the individual’s needs. Secondly, Chinese people seek to ensure harmony—they pursue unity and common ground while simultaneously allowing differences. Thirdly, on the basis of peaceful co-operation and co-existence, there is mutual non-interference in each other’s affairs. It is important that we appreciate those differences.
Over the next 50 years, the challenge for China is to develop harmony in its communities while responding to the ever-growing demand for consumer goods and enhanced standards of living. There are 150 million people in China living below the poverty levels that one would deem acceptable.
Forty years ago, 100 Chinese students came to the UK. Last year, British universities had 65,000 Chinese students, of whom 7,000 were in Scotland. We need to encourage Chinese students to come to Scotland to study while increasing and improving the opportunities for Scottish children to learn Chinese languages.
The five-year plan for China offers opportunities for Scotland to deliver. China seeks to enter a world community. We should engage in that ambition and develop a healthy relationship that goes in the right direction. We must play our part in ensuring that China joins Scotland in a modern world. I encourage the Government and the minister to note the points that I have made, which I hope they will actively pursue in the year ahead.
I ask for speeches of four minutes, please.
12:41
I thank Graeme Pearson for bringing the debate to the chamber and for the sentiments that he expressed in his speech.
I have been interested in China and the Chinese people since I was a child. Strangely enough, my interest began when my granny gave my mother a pair of Chinese blue and white porcelain plates. As a young person, I was hooked on art. The blue and white art of China fascinated me and that fascination—it is almost an illness—continues today. I really am keen on Chinese porcelain.
I never thought that, as a Scottish businessman, I would find myself doing business with and in China. Some 18 years ago, I travelled to China for the first time, to attend a massive commodities fair and establish links with Chinese companies in my line of business. I was taken aback by the range of finished products and the machinery to manufacture them that were on show. It was fascinating to see the products and the machines to manufacture them.
When attempting to make contacts, I was pleasantly surprised by how well informed many of the Chinese company representatives were about Scotland. That turned out to be no accident. When communications broke down between China and nearly every western country, the relationship between China and this tiny country of Scotland was maintained. China was never closed to Scotland. Scotland is a nation that was and is to this day trusted by China. That gives Scotland an enormous advantage over other countries. Scotland, with its population of 5.2 million, is working with China, which has a population of 1.34 billion—what a partner for Scotland to work with.
With a population of 1.34 billion, China has been in a hyperdrive of development in the past 20 years. It is cramming into a mere decade the industrial effort that took western countries 200 years. That is a miracle in our lifetimes. In fact, there are two miracles: the fact that that massive country is physically and materially able to have such development and the managing of it on a human scale.
With all the endeavour in China to better the country and its people, what can we do to assist China and ourselves?
China encourages partnership with external players. We can offer tried-and-trusted systems that can augment and give sustainability to processes in China, whether in health, industry, electronics or education.
On a less positive note, China has encouraged much of its student population to learn abroad and Scotland is more than able to oblige, but the obstacle of visa availability is having a detrimental impact on Chinese students attending Scottish universities and on commerce in general. In fact, it is embarrassing that Chinese people from across sectors, including diplomats and politicians, are hindered by the UK Government from entering Scotland for legitimate business. Fixing that problem would be of significant importance.
I endorse Graeme Pearson’s motion, which graphically highlights in a few lines why it is in our interest to work positively with China. Few people in Scotland know just how highly regarded our country is in China. It respects our views and actions, which is important. Let us see how we can put that to good use for both our countries’ futures.
I respectfully ask members to keep to their four minutes.
12:46
I congratulate Graeme Pearson on introducing this important debate and recognise his interest in and knowledge of China. That knowledge is certainly shared by Gil Paterson, but unfortunately not by me, which I regret and hope to do something about before too long.
I recognise China’s central importance in the world economy. It is now the second most powerful economic nation in the world and it will soon be the first. Its rise in terms of a revolutionary upheaval in global economic power is comparable only with that of the United States at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Our global economy is highly interconnected now, of course, and it is therefore in our interests to develop economic ties with China and to take a great interest in the development of the Chinese economy, as it has had and will have a profound effect on economies in the west. Leading contemporary economists, such as Martin Wolf in his book “Fixing Global Finance”, and Will Hutton in his book “The Writing on the Wall”, have emphasised China’s central importance for the world economy and our economy. It is clearly in our interest as well as China’s to develop economic ties.
In that regard, I welcome the £800 million of trade that we had with China in 2012—I am told that that was a 14 per cent increase on the previous year—and acknowledge the work of, for example, Scottish Development International, which I am told increased the number of companies that it supports to access Chinese markets from 77 to 208 in five years. It is clear that that work is important, but there is more to do, as Graeme Pearson has emphasised, on issues such as more direct air links, dealing with visa problems and the other issues that he mentioned, which are clearly important in building on the good progress that has been made in the past few years.
It is not just a matter of fostering economic connections, of course; there is also the issue of education and cultural links, which I think is recognised in the Scottish Government’s working with China strategy. Again, I welcome the fact that there are 7,000 Chinese students in Scottish universities and the fact that 18 Scottish higher education institutions have academic and research links with China. It is clear that that is very important, as is encouraging more of our students in schools to study Chinese languages. To me, the situation is reminiscent of the 1960s, when there was, for understandable reasons, a fashion for learning Russian, given Russia’s global significance then. China is now the country that might be comparable to it, and the more people who can learn Chinese languages, the better.
Other links are also important. In my constituency we have the botanic gardens, the most important international focus of which is China. That has been so for some time and is on-going. The gardens, which are not far from here, have the largest collection of Chinese plants outside China in the whole world.
There are also, of course, cultural links. I was pleased to see the outstanding Chinese production of “Coriolanus” during the Edinburgh festival and to see a Chinese film called “Three Sisters” at the film festival. It highlighted the poverty in much of rural China. Notwithstanding China’s overall high gross domestic product, it has a GDP per head that is a tenth of ours, of course. That highlights the issue of poverty.
The last point that I want to make is that at the book festival I heard a man called Ma Jian talk about his book, “The Dark Road”, which leads me to human rights issues, which it is right to acknowledge in this debate. The issue that he was writing about—and rebelling against—was the one-child policy. A wholly different attitude to individual freedom underlies some of the human rights issues in China. We must highlight abuses of human rights, but that should not detract from building positive relationships with China on economic and other issues.
12:50
I thank Graeme Pearson for providing the opportunity to have this important debate.
None of us will be any more than a couple of metres from something that has some Chinese technology in it. Very few of us will be more than a couple of generations away from people in our family who went to and engaged directly in China. In my case, a rather distant cousin of mine, James Jeffrey, died in Shanghai at the age of 33 in 1870. The connections between Scotland and China go a very long way back. We should not get too complacent about them, because we played a not too creditable role in the exploitation of the Chinese population in the opium industry, but the world moves on and I think that we are in a substantially better place.
My wife and I had the great privilege to go to China immediately after the end of the cultural revolution; we arrived there on 4 November 1978. We had had our names on the waiting list for a couple of years. When we put our names on it, we could not afford to go, so the delay was welcome as it enabled us to save up enough money.
When we went to Beijing in November 1978, we found a country substantially different from that which one would find today. We saw not a single privately owned car while we were in China in the 1970s. Today in Beijing, the number of cars per 100 households is 60. That compares to something like 35 per 100 households in London and somewhere in the 40s per 100 households in Edinburgh and Glasgow. That is not all good news, but it is a very strong indicator of the economic progress that is being made. All the premium car makers have assembly plants out there. Indeed, the MG is now a Chinese-owned brand.
We also had the immense privilege to go down to Kunming in Yunnan province—that was accidental; we had not intended to go there. Kunming is not well known, but it is the other end of the road to Mandalay, which most people will know about. We were told—this was not verified, but it could certainly be true—that we were the first westerners to go there since the revolution in the 1940s.
The history of Scotland’s engagement with China was writ large in that visit in 1978. The English that people spoke—and it was spoken widely—was spoken with a Scottish accent, because the original tutors of English to the Chinese were Scots missionaries. Not everything about engagement with the Scots missionaries was good, but that was. Businesses such as Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong, which has Scottish roots, continue to this day.
In 1978 we were some five months away from a referendum on establishing a Scottish assembly—the vote was held on 1 March 1979. Everywhere I went in China in 1978 I was asked questions about that referendum. Then, just as now, the Chinese knew about and were interested in what was going on in Scotland.
The motion before us touches a lot of important buttons. I will say a word or two in my concluding remarks about air links. As transport minister, I probably had five or six meetings with Chinese interests and I know that the current minister does the same. The barrier that we have is a rather odd one: it is the difficulty around the Boeing Dreamliner, which is the only aircraft that fits the runway lengths that we have here and can go to China in a single hop. There is actually a huge advantage for Scotland, because Edinburgh and Glasgow airports are closer to Beijing in flying distance than London Heathrow. The Chinese are interested in making a Scottish airport their European hub connection airport. Let us hope that we can do that. I congratulate Graeme Pearson again.
12:54
I congratulate Graeme Pearson on securing today’s debate and I also pay tribute to his work as convener of the parliamentary cross-party group on China, of which I am happy to be a member. The CPG is a very good forum for raising some of the issues that we are discussing today.
Like Graeme Pearson and others, I am very positive about increasing trade and educational links between Scotland and China, and I recognise the significant potential economic benefits for Scotland through increased exports, especially in food and drink products such as whisky and salmon, and additional tourism income, both of which are so important to my region of the Highlands and Islands.
China’s rapidly growing professional classes offer the same kind of opportunities that American markets and visitors offered Scotland in past decades. I commend the staff of businesses such as Marine Harvest Scotland, whose processing factory in Fort William I visited earlier this year on behalf of the European and External Relations Committee as part of the China plan inquiry. Marine Harvest has greatly increased exports of its fresh farmed salmon to China. Lorries travel directly from Fort William to Heathrow. Recently, the fish farm sector has been troubled by amoebic gill disease, which harmed Marine Harvest’s exports last year, but it remains an example of good innovation in the export market to China.
The European and External Relations Committee inquiry into the Scottish Government’s China plan was widely welcomed and its report on the subject is very useful. The first recommendation was:
“The Committee would welcome a response from SDI on how it could make progress in supporting business to business partnerships between Scottish and Chinese companies”
Humza Yousaf, the minister who is with us in the chamber, said that he agreed that there should be support in business-to-business partnerships and pointed out that SDI had set up a new office in Shenzhen and increased its staff by 30 per cent. That is all very good, but the question about SDI would not have been raised in the first place if things had been going at 100 per cent, so I hope that that has improved.
The committee secured a positive media profile for the inquiry. Evaluation demonstrated that media coverage reached in excess of 750,000 people, which is a great many. The committee will soon consider the Scottish Government’s response to the report.
When we were taking evidence, it was important to hear from businesspeople who had direct experience of working in the Chinese market, including those in asset management, a sector in which Scotland has a strong international reputation. I was particularly struck by the evidence given by Angus Tulloch, who is a leading Scottish financier. Mr Tulloch emphasised the requirement for businesses to find the right partner in China. That relationship building must be viewed as a long-term process and the value of speaking in the language of the country with which trading is desired cannot be overstated. We in the chamber would all agree on that point, and I would support additional efforts to increase the learning of Mandarin Chinese in Scotland’s schools, colleges and universities. Increasing the availability of the teaching of Mandarin is key to that ambition being realised. The European and External Relations Committee inquiry into the teaching of modern languages in Scotland, which my committee has been doing lately, should help to highlight and improve Scottish children’s learning of Mandarin.
Many businesses highlighted the major difficulty of obtaining visas for Chinese businesspeople, and that must be looked into by the relevant departments to prevent good ideas from being wasted through red tape and technicalities.
We are also positive about the concept of direct flights to China. We recognise that business leaders have argued that a direct air link is of crucial importance to the Chinese view of Scotland. It could encourage more Chinese firms to recognise the possibilities of using Scotland as a European headquarters. It could also provide a real boost to tourism, although business leaders have suggested that such a link would have to be low cost, and low cost enough to rival the available routes for business travel to Europe.
Today’s debate is very important. I am sure that the Parliament will debate our links with China with increasing frequency in the future. I look forward to the minister’s response to today’s debate and to the European and External Relations Committee’s further consideration of the Scottish Government’s China plan.
12:59
I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate and congratulate Graeme Pearson on bringing it to the chamber.
As we know, China is a growing economy—with growth of around 9 per cent per annum, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development—and it continues to grow. Two facts about the Chinese economy stand out in particular: Chinese economic growth contributed to a third of global growth in 2011, and China is now the world’s second largest goods importer, behind only the United States.
In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in international trade. It is no wonder that there are now several graphics circulating on the internet that originate from a variety of high-profile research institutes such as the London School of Economics and purport to show the economic centre of gravity. For those of us who are unfamiliar with geopolitical jargon—I count myself as one of that group—the economic centre of gravity is generally defined as the precise spot on the globe where we can identify the average economic activity. It is worked out based on the GDP of every country on the planet and, although it might not mean much in policy terms, the dot is shifting very quickly. It has travelled east from the mid-Atlantic since the 1980s, and is predicted—perhaps unsurprisingly—to lie somewhere between China and India by 2050.
I mention that to highlight the importance of China to Scotland and to the world as a whole, and the importance of our China plan. Over the next 30 years, China will become an ever more important focal point for Scottish business. If we are to meet the China plan’s targets for increasing trade opportunities by increasing the value of exports to China and encouraging investment, we must understand the importance of its formidable economic trajectory.
Trade with China is unique. Successful interaction with the country, for business and for Government, depends heavily on genuine mutual engagement. As Stephen Perry, the chairman of the 48 Group Club of UK businesses, has said, we should start thinking of China as a “global partner” rather than just an economy.
I stress that successful economic partnerships depend not just on trade deals but on—perhaps most importantly of all—attitudes and perceptions. How do Scots see China? How do Scots do business at an international level? What are our skills and what do we offer as a people? How do we interact with others, and how adaptable are we?
The British Council in Scotland has said that we need a new generation of Scots who are “globalised citizens”—that is, people who are ready to interact on the world stage with confidence. However, despite our best intentions, we would all admit that one skill that is lacking in so many Scots, regardless of their qualification level, is the ability to interact in foreign languages. The European and External Relations Committee has been conducting an inquiry into foreign language learning in primary schools, and we have at least some understanding of the barriers to increased uptake of languages such as Mandarin—for example, we simply do not have a sufficient number of qualified teachers.
Arguably the biggest long-term barrier to language learning in Scotland is attitudinal: given the choice, many young Scots choose other subjects over foreign languages. With Mandarin, however, there is some cause for optimism. Figures show that young Scots are bucking the trend by opting for Mandarin, where it is available, in greater numbers than for any other language, and uptake among that group is the highest in the UK. Approximately 70 Scottish schools are now teaching Mandarin, including in my constituency a primary school in Leuchars and a secondary school in St Andrews. Last year, 300 Scottish students took exams in Mandarin, in comparison with 100 in 2011.
We also need to understand the cultural and historical aspects. Stewart Stevenson mentioned the opium wars, and Jamie McGrigor mentioned the evidence that was given to the European and External Relations Committee by Angus Tulloch, who said:
“People should not go into China without understanding the damage that we did during the opium wars.”—[Official Report, European and External Relations Committee, 2 May 2013; c1175.]
On that note I will conclude, and I look forward to hearing the minister’s comments on his recent trip to China.
13:03
I congratulate Graeme Pearson on bringing to the chamber this important debate on enhancing enterprise for Scotland and China. Unfortunately, I have not been to China, but it is on my list of places to go. As the motion states,
“China is currently the second largest economy in the world”.
It is therefore vital that Scotland strives to foster relationships with China, and this debate is an excellent opportunity to highlight the economic importance of such a relationship.
Graeme Pearson set up the cross-party group to promote relations between Scotland and China, which works with organisations and authorities to increase cultural educational and economic exchange between the two countries, and highlights the barriers that exist in developing those links.
To address the four major barriers that have been identified by the CPG, we need to have direct flights from Scotland to China, as has been mentioned many times in the debate; improved trade; educational links and language opportunities; and improved visa and immigration procedures. I welcome the Scottish Government’s recognition, in an answer to a parliamentary question by Mr Pearson earlier this session, of the importance of direct flights. Establishing such a link will be invaluable not only for business and the establishment of successful trade links but for tourism. It should be a key priority, which should be of economic benefit to both China and Scotland. Perhaps the minister will update us today on what progress has been made on that.
We also need to ensure that it is easier for Chinese businesses to be established here. The CPG has identified as a hindrance to the setting up of such business ventures the cost of visas and their processing time, which also affects visitor numbers to Scotland. I know that such matters are reserved, but I wonder what discussions the Scottish Government has had with its UK counterparts to tackle those barriers so that Chinese businesses can invest in Scotland, and vice versa. In the meantime, Scottish Development International needs to continue working closely with Chinese investment companies and entrepreneurs to build relationships and to outline why Scotland is an attractive investment opportunity and why such relationships can be beneficial to both countries.
To further improve trade links, we need a multifaceted approach, focusing on improving the teaching of Mandarin and Cantonese and our understanding of Chinese culture through education, school twinning and cultural exchange. It is deeply important that we do everything that we can to foster not only economic links between Scotland and China but cultural links. I welcome the Scottish Government’s five-year strategy for engagement between Scotland and the People’s Republic of China, but I hope that we can see the strategy extended to encompass longer-term outcomes and goals.
Again, I thank Graeme Pearson for bringing the motion to the chamber today and I thank the CPG for its work in bringing our two nations closer together. As we help to open up China, we can play an important role in reducing China’s human rights issues.
Many thanks. I now invite the Minister for External Affairs and International Development, Humza Yousaf, to respond to the debate. Minister, you have seven minutes.
13:07
Thank you, Presiding Officer.
I, too, thank Graeme Pearson for lodging the motion and securing the debate, which has highlighted the strength of Sino-Scottish links. I want to put on record the great work that the CPG does under the stewardship of Graeme Pearson, Gil Paterson and the rest of its members. It is a great asset and resource for the Government, along with other partners such as the European and External Relations Committee, which has advised us in a very thoughtful and insightful report, to which there will be a response in the fullness of time. There are of course also other partners, such as Consul General Lee, who strains every sinew to ensure that we have closer collaboration between Scotland and China. I do not have time to mention other partners, but I thank them, too.
The astounding story of today’s debate will be that we had an entire 45-minute debate about China and Scotland and nobody once mentioned pandas, which is incredible. I mention that in jest, but the serious point is that that in itself shows the closening relationship between our two nations.
The Scottish Government’s China strategy is an important statement of commitment to the Chinese Government on the importance of the relationship to our nation. The refreshed China strategy contains four guiding principles that will continue to shape our engagement with China. The principles, each of which is important in its own right, are securing sustainable economic growth; respect for human rights and the rule of law; the understanding of culture, which Graeme Pearson mentioned; and increasing Scotland’s influence on the international stage. I agree entirely with Malcolm Chisholm’s sentiment that respect for human rights, which Margaret McDougall referred to in her closing words, and the rule of law is imperative. That is why it is part of our strategy. However, as Malcolm Chisholm rightly said, that should not preclude us from continuing to do what is right for Scotland’s economic interests—there is no contradiction in addressing both issues.
The importance of China as a growing economic superpower has been reaffirmed in the debate. We have an opportunity through our relationship with China to contribute to Scotland’s economic growth.
We should have no doubt about it—China is incredibly competitive. I have been there and I was certainly not the only delegate from other parts of the world. However, Scotland has some incredibly unique offerings: world-class companies, world-class talents, research excellence, world-class universities and indeed luxury goods, salmon and whisky being perhaps top of the list.
I am encouraged by what the minister has said, but the second recommendation in the European and External Relations Committee’s report on the China plan points out:
“there is a lack of awareness of the existence of the Plan itself and the support available from the Scottish Government among some of the stakeholders.”
Will the minister comment on that?
Sure. As I said, we will reflect on the plan. We can always do more to ensure that businesses—particularly small and medium-sized businesses—know about the outcomes that we have and about the expert services that SDI provides, such as market research and incubation hubs. The point is well made in the report and we will certainly look to reflect on it.
The demand is there from Scottish businesses, which rank China as their number 1 future market. In the past five years, there has been an increase of more than 80 per cent in exports to China. The point that both Jamie McGrigor and Graeme Pearson made about small and medium-sized enterprises was well made. SDI is leading another mission of Scottish businesses to China, and 80 per cent of them are what we would classify as small and medium-sized enterprises. We take that point on board, but we also reflect that there is more that we can do.
On my recent visit to China, one of the small enterprises that we helped—I do not think that I could call it medium sized—was TEFL Scotland, and we witnessed it signing a contract. A husband and wife team in Dingwall literally started that business from a garden shed, subsequently employing 10 people, doubling their workforce and securing a contract with one of China’s biggest online teaching resources. That is a fantastic example, but I absolutely agree that more can be done.
We heard today from a variety of speakers. Gil Paterson made the point—I thought very well—about higher education and the importance of languages. In university education, we attract a phenomenal amount of Chinese students and Scotland has an excellent offer in its teaching and research. I believe that, through collaboration, both sides can learn from each other and gain a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities that the world faces.
As many speakers said, Scotland has been successful in attracting Chinese students and those from Hong Kong, but it is not just about the students who come to study here. We should also consider not only the economic benefit that they bring when their families come and when they spend here but what they bring culturally and academically.
I will talk more about the visa regime in a second, but I agree that there is a difficulty there—if nothing else, at least a difficulty of perception of Scotland’s and the UK’s openness. We will continue to encourage the UK Government and have discussions with it where and when appropriate, saying that the message should be that Scotland and the UK are open to the best academic and business talent that China and the world have to offer. My colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs has had that discussion many a time on behalf of Universities Scotland, the Institute of Directors, the Federation of Small Businesses and others and she will continue to do that where and when appropriate.
Language was mentioned, and that point is extraordinarily important. As Roderick Campbell said, to change the cultural mindset can be a difficult task, but the pragmatic and practical things that we can do—and have done—include the development of 13 Confucius classroom hubs in Scotland, each linked with a school in Tianjin, covering 17 local authorities. Learning Chinese languages is just one part of learning about China, its history and its growth in the modern world, but it is an extraordinarily important part and we will continue to do what we can to increase the uptake of languages.
Almost every speaker mentioned air links. Well before I became a member of the Scottish Government, the Government was pursuing the issue vigorously through ministers with responsibility for tourism, external affairs and many other departments. My ministerial colleague Fergus Ewing sought the establishment of a stakeholder group, to bring businesses together to discuss collaboration between Scotland and China, and one of the main comments from businesspeople is that there is a need for a direct air link.
We are straining every sinew in that regard. I was lucky to meet the Chinese civil aviation authority, and we agreed on a number of steps to take forward to promote the idea and, I hope, get to the point at which we have a direct air link between Scotland and China. I will endeavour to ensure that we keep the cross-party group and the European and External Relations Committee updated on progress.
Under the China strategy we have committed to establishing a stakeholder implementation and delivery forum, to help to promote collaborative working and share best practice and practical expertise. I am pleased that the forum’s first meeting will be held at the end of the month and I look forward to hearing the outcome of the discussions.
I am delighted to announce that an online information hub on Sino-Scottish links will be launched very soon. I know that that is of particular interest to Graeme Pearson and the cross-party group.
I thank members for their speeches. I will endeavour to keep members, committees and the cross-party group up to date on progress on the points in the motion about language, air links, universities, visas and tourism. I thank members for the opportunity to have this debate.
13:16
Meeting suspended.
14:30
On resuming—