Total Visits

Monday 18 March 2013

Scottish Business advantaged in Singapore?

I recently received an email from an English Democrats member who works in Singapore. He has pointed out that, just like the story about the goings on in the Gulf where Scottish business was being much more effectively promoted than English business, the same is happening in Singapore.

There is now a Scottish section of the British Chamber of Commerce, but not an English one.

We English really do need to start raising our game otherwise things will certainly go from bad to worse for us. Who will we be able to blame but ourselves?

Here is the correspondence duly anonymised and below that is a copy of the section in the Singaporean British Chamber of Commerce with a link in case you want to check the original.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: katie@britcham.org.sg [mailto:katie@britcham.org.sg]
Sent: Tuesday, 12 March, 2013 5:09 PM
Subject: Scottish Business Group - Newly Formed!

SCOTTISH BUSINESS GROUP - NEWLY FORMED!


Dear Member,

We are delighted to announce that the Chamber is going to establish a Scottish Business Group (SBG) and that the Scottish Business Association of Singapore (SBAS) will be merging with the British Chamber of Commerce.

The SBAS was developed in 2011 and has grown to such an extent, they have decided to use the support of the British Chamber to provide a wider network as well as the administrative back up required to run an association.

The newly formed SBS committee will be chaired by Jason Grant who runs Scottish Development International’s Southeast Asian office in Singapore, supporting bilateral trade and investment between Scotland and the Asean member countries. Jason and the current committee will work out an engagement plan for the remainder of 2013.

We are excited by the further enhancement of our Business Group offering and as you are now able to select up to 3 business groups, we would welcome you to join the group online through your members profile. You may also join their LinkedIn group or if you are interested in more involvement on a committee level please do not hesitate to let Jason know.

Of course we will keep you informed of the first activities and very much look forward to seeing you there.

Kind regards,
Katie Hudson
Membership Manager


Sent: Tuesday, 12 March, 2013 8:04 PM
To: Katie Hudson
Subject: RE: Scottish Business Group - Newly Formed!

Dear Katie,

With regards to Scottish Business Association of Singapore (SBAS) seting up the Scottish Group in the British Chamber, what happens when the Scottish referendum takes place next year?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-21741448
From: Katie Hudson [mailto:Katie@britcham.org.sg]
Sent: Wednesday, 13 March, 2013 1:11 PM
Subject: RE: Scottish Business Group - Newly Formed!

Hi

Nothing will change, we run as an independent organisation for our members.

Kind regards,

Katie

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

British Chamber Of Commerce Singapore

Scottish Business Group

The Scottish Business Group is a new cross-sectorial group within the British Chamber of Commerce. It has been established to build on the long-established trading links between Scotland and Singapore, and to promote and advance commercial interaction between the two countries.

The Group is open to businesses and business professionals located, or interested, in Singapore who enjoy an economic, educational, social or historical relationship with Scotland. The group aims to:

promote the development of commerce between Scotland and Singapore

provide a central business contact point for all current and new British Chamber members who have an interest in Scotland, or in Scottish-related business

provide a networking access point for Scottish companies seeking to develop business interests in Singapore and into the wider ASEAN region

manage events that facilitate the transfer of experience and expertise within Singapore’s fast-growing Scottish business base




Chairman:
Jason Grant - Scottish Development International

Jason runs Scottish Development International's Southeast Asian office in Singapore, supporting bilateral trade and investment between Scotland and the Asean member countries. With a background of small company finance, innovation & commercialization and technology transfer he has worked in Asia for over 8-years, the last four of which have been based here in SDI's Singapore operations. SDI in Singapore focuses primarily on supporting Scotland's export development, with a regional focus on increasing Scottish company participation in the Asia Pacific Oil & Gas supply chain, supporting Scottish academic institutions enter the regional education sector and increasing Scottish exports to the growing consumer markets of SE Asia.



British Chamber of Commerce Singapore - Building Networks Connecting Business Creating Opportunities

9 comments:

  1. You could look on this as a positive for England. It seems that the Scots are now actively flexing their muscles in anticipation of independence. The more this happens the more the Scots will think, yes we could go it alone. It will be like the grown-up kids, who want to live their own lives and not fit in with mum and dad, finally leaving home so that mum and dad can have a bit of peace and quiet without their constant whinging and do what they want to do without having to consider the kids.

    On another point, I have been musing as to why Alfred the Great and Churchill were considered two of the greatest Britons, although I really think that that should really be Englishmen. The Scots would probably choose William Wallace or Robert the Bruce these days. I reached the conclusion that they came back once they had in effect been defeated. Alfred had lost to the Danes and fled to the Somerset Marshes where he brooded and refused to give up finally rallying his men and leading them to victory so that England remained free of total Danish control until the time of Canute. Likewise Churchill had suffered the defeat of Dunkirk. It seems that we never find our true leaders until our backs are firmly against the wall and we have in effect been defeated. Both men were a mixture of warrior, artist, scholar and depressive. Alfred was said to have suffered from some nervous affliction all his life. It is an unusual mixture of the aggressive and the sensitive. Both men had fought in battle, Churchill in the Boer War.

    So if we are to find somebody to save us now that we have virtually been defeated then perhaps we need somebody possessing the same unique qualities. Scouring the horizon I cannot see anybody with those qualities at the moment. Let's hope that, just as Alfred and Winston, lived a thousand years apart, we do not have to wait a thousand years. The problem now is that so few of our leaders have ever been on the battlefield. We need somebody who is ex-forces, especially since our armed forces now seem to be the only bodies still to possess the highest qualities and really the only people we can still be proud of.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ED should give priority to setting up a office in central England with a full time person running the office along with volunteer staff/helpers
    rather than spreading themselves very thinly across England All resources, neccessary man/woman power to assist/helping the party and the members in each and every way ,massive fundraising programmes.
    Office set up for non stop 24hr running of commmunicationns,statements,contacts,advising instructing members and leaders a party spokesman contacting mps and govt dept to lobby politician's especially cabinet.
    Back to Basics because the English Democrats are not going to get a fairy godmother showering them with monies as other parties do
    Its gonna mean fighting tooth and nail all the way for anything and everything ! the English better get use to it, same as our rugby team we need to be as hard and tough as IRON!

    ReplyDelete
  3. 'Twas ever thus! There's a Scottish BBC. There's a Scottish version of Lib, Lab and Con. Scotland (and Wales) are free to operate as if they are inside or outside of the U.K. depending on what is expedient at the time. If you phone in to the BBC, and say "Scotland", that's o.k. If you say "Wales", that's o.k. too. If you say "England" you get jumped on - "and Scotland, and Wales," the presenter will protest.
    We'll get there!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Apparently, since the inaccurate film "Braveheart" any child sporting a St George's flag t-shirt in a a Scottish school playground will get beaten up. I should imagine the same is likely to occur in Wales or Northern Ireland. But if it happened the other way round in England, well, wouldn't the band play. On Justin's House on C Beebies the ethnic English are usually outnumbered by the children or grandchildren of Commonwealth immigrants. The cameramen never home in on the former only on the latter. It is as if we don't exist except, along with our historic buildings, as a kind of mute wallpaper. It makes you feel as if the British establishment wish that England and the English would just silently disappear and be replaced. Still just keep your eyes on Cyprus with Post-marxist Russia coming to the aid of the EU totalitarian bullies whom Russia has compared in this regard to the Soviet Union. Hopefully Marxism, as predicted, has run its course. Interesting that the Cypriots keep comparing Angela Merkel to Hitler even though she is really a GDR Marxist hiding in CDU clothing. Soon, England will be able to rise from the EU's ashes before they get a chance to carve her up into regions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have just read an alternative viewpoint on the above, namely that the Russian Mafia were involved in events in Iceland, Ireland and Cyprus and that Gazprom, whence
    sprang Medvedev and Putin, who want to get their hands on Cyprus's gas and oil, are also tied up in it all. So it seems that we can only save ourselves from the EU; but with an anti-euro party being formed in Germany to fight the elections this year and Italy possibly having a referendum on the euro then perhaps the euro and then the EU will be history soon.

    ReplyDelete
  6. At home there is a British Retail Consortium, a Scottish Retail Consortium and ones for Wales and Northern Ireland. Surprise, surprise! There is no English Retail Consortium.
    Steve,Somerset

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just further proof that England as far as they are concerned no longer exists, except on the weather forecast, although even there you are not sure if they are talking about North West England or North West Britain i.e. Scotland. Presumably it is now forbidden to sing such songs as "There'll always be an England".

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am very happy to see your valuable information. Its good , I like your content.

    ReplyDelete