A delegation from the Swedish town of Tranas is visiting Moray this week to reinforce links between the two communities.

Carin Magg, chief education officer for Tranas and Monica Flodstrom, chief executive of Tranas Council attended the Moray Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise (MBSE) board meeting on Thursday at MBSE's Moray office, The Apex, in Forres.  They also visited Moray College and were visiting Moray Council today (Friday 27th February).

Carin and Monica each gave a presentation to the MBSE board. Douglas Yule, chief executive of MBSE, Bob Stubbs, head of key industries at Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Tom Matthew, transport policy manager for HIE also made presentations.

Derek Bedford, chairman of MBSE, said: "We were very happy to welcome Carin and Monica to Moray Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise and enjoyed our discussions.  It was a great opportunity to compare the way they approach enterprise and development in Sweden with what we are doing here in the MBSE area. 

"Our guests visited the site of Horizon Scotland, the new innovation and business incubation centre and view the progress made on the building work so far. "

Carin was formerly the principal of a further education college and in the past took part in staff / student exchanges with Moray College.  This relationship has continued and Moray College has been working with Carin and educational establishments in Tranas to forge links with education and industry between the areas.

Dr Jim Logan, principal of Moray College and Gordon Biggs, head of European and International Relations at Moray College visited Tranas last year and met with Monica.

Talking about that visit Dr Logan said: "It was a great opportunity to meet people from educational establishments in Tranas and to forge relationships that we hope will continue to benefit each area. 

"Gordon Biggs will take our visitors on a cultural visit of this area on Saturday (28th February) and we hope they will get a real flavour of Moray and what we have to offer."