Scottish independence: Firms question “Yes” vote business case
More than 130 businesses have signed a letter saying the business case for Scottish independence “has not been made”.
Scotland will go to the polls in the referendum on 18 September, with voters being asked the “Yes/No” question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
The letter says that “much is at stake”: “Our economic ties inside the United Kingdom are very close and support more than a million Scottish jobs.
The signatories account for about 50,000 jobs in Scotland, from large firms such as Babcock ship building to small engineering firms in Glasgow’s east end, Kamal says in his blog.
Former Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir George Mathewson, has said that Scotland’s vital financial services sector – for example – would flourish if Scotland votes “Yes”.
“There is nothing to suggest that being part of a smaller country hinders a financial services industry. Switzerland, for example, has – in Geneva and Zurich – not one, but two of the world’s Top 10 financial centres. Singapore, with five million people, is ranked 4th,” he has said.
“Investment is an increasingly global business, where success depends much more on people than on borders.”
Economist and former head of Scottish Enterprise Sir Donald MacKay has argued that an independent Scotland would be in better fiscal shape than the UK is at present.
“An independent Scotland should use that financial advantage to invest in re-engineering our economy towards industrial, manufacturing and tradeable services development,” he has said.
Source: bbc
