Travelling the region to meet our members in the long summer days is another reminder of how lucky we are to live in such an inspiring natural environment.
It has been particularly enjoyable to see a number of long-term investment projects approaching completion.
With the topping out to the new Cairn Distillery near Grantown earlier in the week and the imminent reopening of the Glen Ord visitor centre, it shows confidence and growing demand for Scotch whisky and whisky tourism.
The investment goes much deeper than just these beautiful new building designs. Long term skilled sustainable jobs, infrastructure investment, community wealth building through tourism and visitor attraction all offer wider benefits to fragile rural communities.
It continues to be a challenging time for many of our members who across all sectors are feeling the effects of the higher costs for energy and a shortage of key staff.
It’s not a unique situation to our region and there is no easy solution to these issues, but we need government leadership to address these challenges in the short term as it is reducing the capacity for businesses to recover and grow in the aftermath of the pandemic, let alone think about long-term sustainable growth.
Earlier this month, SCDI were delighted to welcome undersecretary of state for Scotland, Iain Stewart MP, to a member round table event in Inverness where our members had the opportunity to discuss the UK government’s plans for growth through levelling up and the cities and islands deals.
Mr Stewart also took questions from members on innovation and export, and he outlined the government’s ambitions for net zero and the role of the Highlands and Islands in delivering green energy needs of the future.
It’s been great to see the return of large-scale live events that have helped to define our region over the years leading up to the pandemic.
The concerts, marathons, music festivals and agricultural shows are all back for summer and helping to drive regional recovery.
Here’s to the sun continuing to shine for you all!