EY Attractiveness Survey : Amendment 1

As an amendment to motion S7M-00542 in the name of Alex Kerr (EY Attractiveness Survey), insert at end "; recognises however, what it considers is the lack of detailed parliamentary and governmental scrutiny applied to FDI projects, which can often entail the foreign takeover of established Scotland-headquartered companies and domestically-owned assets rather than generating new greenfield investment; notes with concern recent analysis by The Scotsman in the Scotland 500 list, which suggested that US-based private equity firms account for 39% of all ownership stakes in Scotland’s largest headquartered firms by turnover, and that all three of the country's unicorn start-ups are now in overseas ownership; warns that companies from Scotland might too often be left vulnerable to foreign takeovers; highlights what it sees as the increasing level of foreign ownership in Scoland's economy and the consequent wealth extraction that this facilitates, a dynamic that it considers is evidenced by the structural divergence between Scotland’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI);understands that GNI remained below GDP throughout 1998 to 2021, reflecting the primary income deficit over this period; notes that, in 2021, Scotland’s Primary Income Account showed a net outflow of £10.1 billion, or -5.6% of GDP, with the largest outflow being returns on direct investment at -3.2% of GDP, and calls on the Scottish Government to carry out a more rigorous analysis of investment data, distinguishing between developmental FDI, which builds domestic industrial capacity, and dependent FDI, which extracts wealth, to ensure that economic strategy prioritises the retention and growth of capital under domestic ownership and the long-term prosperity of Scotland."