Weekly Update, 29th March 2010

A rather unusual week, with the extreme weather causing lots of travel problems. However, I was able to make a presentation in Aberdeen to members of the Energy Industries Council. The EIC is “the centre for energy market intelligence for UK registered companies” and it has offices in Aberdeen, Billingham and London (UK) as well as Dubai, Singapore, Houston and Rio De Janeiro. As you would expect from its locations it focuses primarily upon oil and gas, but it was good to find out how receptive my audience of around 30 companies were to my messages about the opportunities in Caithness & north Sutherland. Originally DSRL’s Simon Middlemas was also due to present to the event, but the weather intervened – nevertheless I focused on renewable energy, and on the huge assets we have in our natural and human resources in the north. Feedback was encouraging, and I have at least one positive expression of interest take back with me.
I also had a final hand-over meeting with HIE’s Fiona Macpherson, whose last day in post was yesterday (31st March). Inward Investment is one of our key priorities over the next few months, and Fiona has passed on a number of promising leads to Roy Kirk and the HIE team.