John Swinney MSP joins Fife Chamber for Christmas lunch
Fife Chamber of Commerce celebrated the start of the festive season with its annual Christmas lunch held at the Keavil House Hotel, Crossford on Friday 2nd December, with Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney addressing attendees as guest of honour.
Around 70 guests attended to enjoy, what was for many, the first Christmas meal of the season and to hear Mr Swinney's thoughts, views and proposals for Fife's business and economic future.
Mr Swinney opened his speech by reiterating the massive economic challenges faced by Scotland and the UK and the concerns raised by UK growth forecasts. He also took the opportunity to reassure the Chamber that the Scottish Government will continue to do all it can to support economic growth at grass-root level within Scottish localities.
The Fife Chamber initiative to engage with local politicians through regular Politician Forums was highlighted by the Finance Minister as extremely effective and an encouraging sign that local businesses, through the Chamber, were able to build positive and direct relationships with local government, a much needed dialogue to ensure local business concerns are met.
Mr Swinney continued by highlighting the encouraging economic prospects in Fife, citing the expansions and further investments of businesses such as Diageo in Leven and Amazon in Dunfermline.
He then spoke of the Scottish Government's commitment to securing important additional capital borrowing powers from Westminster to support the need for substantial expansion of capital spend in Scotland. This is now allowing the Scottish Government to use capital expenditure to support projects which may otherwise have received very little or no financial support.
Mr Swinney also spoke of the hugely positive economic impact that the Forth Replacement Crossing (FRC) project is having and will continue to have on the local area and the opportunities for local businesses to benefit from Scotland's largest infrastructure project for a generation. He identified that through contracts connected with the FRC project, such as the Fife Intelligent Transport System (ITS), the Scottish Government can look to support and develop the skills set of Scottish workers and to increase focus on more opportunities for young workers.
By stating that the business sector is critical for the future growth of the country, Mr Swinney's speech closed by making tribute to the ongoing work of Fife Chamber and its members, in helping to create an increasingly encouraging outlook for Fife's local economy. He paid tribute to the commitment and passion of Scottish business leaders and cemented the Scottish Government's positive and cohesive approach to regenerating the Scottish economy.
After lunch, guests were entertained by the dazzling showmanship of Colin McLeod of Dunfermline based Tree of Knowledge. Introduced as a mind-reader and psychological illusionist, Colin amazed his audience with a serious of inexplicable demonstrations of thought suggestion, illusion and downright mystery.
Fife Chamber Chief Executive Alan Russell said: "Our Christmas lunch is always a fantastically popular event to kick off the festive period and this year has been as enjoyable as ever. We are absolutely honoured that Mr Swinney was able to give up his valuable time to address our guests and as always he was a pleasure to hear. I'm sure our guests found his words both encouraging and entertaining. As for Colin from Tree of Knowledge; fantastic speaker, a very enjoyable performance and I think he left most of our guests still wondering 'just how on earth does he do that?'."
Dinner guests also raised an impressive £570 during a charity draw with the proceeds being donated to the Fife Society for the Blind.
Fife Chamber works to contribute positively to the Fife economy by representing its members' interests, engaging with businesses of all types, identifying and debating issues affecting the Fife economy and lobbying locally and nationally to help resolve business concerns.
