Scottish Development International (SDI)
Key Competitive Attractions
Scotland's Competitive Advantages
A world leading education system, flourishing industry sectors and a culture of innovation make Scotland a popular location for inward investment.
Scotland’s research and development strength continues to attract business investment. This success is based on collaboration between government, business innovators, finance leaders, the academic sector and inward investors.
Scottish Development International (SDI) is crucial to this collaboration, helping the economy by encouraging inward investment and helping Scottish based companies to explore international trade.
Find out more about investing in Scotland.
Assistance and Support For New Business Investors
SDI works to attract inward investment and knowledge to Scotland by promoting Scotland as a good place to live, work and do business.
SDI provides a full range of services for companies seeking to exploit Scotland`s key strengths in knowledge, high-level skills, technology and innovation.
Around 1500 global companies, including Amazon, O2, Dell and Pfizer, have already chosen to invest in Scotland.
Existing Business Base
International recognition
In 2009 the World Bank’s Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking report rated SDI sixth in the world for its work in attracting inward investors to Scotland.
GDP Global Development named SDI the "most consistently high performing agency" in the world for its work attracting inward investment and promoting Scottish companies overseas.
Scotland has also gained consistent recognition in the Financial Times fDi magazine’s annual awards, winning the European Region of the Future Award in 2008.
Recent fDi awards won by Scotland include:
- UK Region of the Future
- European Region with Best FDI Strategy
- European Region with Best Human Resources
- Edinburgh - ‘Most Business Friendly’ city in Europe
- Glasgow - ‘Most Business Friendly’ city in Europe
- Scotland - ‘Most Business Friendly’ region in Europe
In 2007, The Scientist magazine rated the University of Dundee the best institution in Europe for scientists to work in.
Glasgow was voted European City of the Year 2010 by the Academy of Urbanism.
Top seven reasons to invest in Scotland.
