Thank you very much Sandy and good morning everyone. It’s a particularly enjoyable occasion for me to be here today with you and I particularly want to add a special welcome to  those of you who are joining us for the first time whether as LEC directors or HIE Board Members and a particularly warm welcome to all our colleagues from Careers Scotland because this is the first of these network conferences where you have been with us and we are delighted you are with us and we are looking forward to embedding our work of the old network with the work of Careers Scotland into a completely unified system for the future. 

As this presentation brought out some powerfully important messages for us I don’t want to repeat them but the one about confidence and optimism really does merit repeating because the numbers there are at the highest end of any survey that you ever can achieve in this country and if the people and businesses of every part of our region are saying to us that broadly they feel positive about the future that gives us an astonishing foundation from which to build into this next century. 

Secondly, I think the views of young people have been very important for us to hear in that survey because what we are doing all this for is not with and through and for this next generation so listening to their voices and listening to their priorities which are probably  different to previous generations is a critical thing for us to do. We decided to conduct a very substantial survey, the biggest survey of public attitudes we have ever done in the lifetime of this or the previous network and we chose to do that because we wanted at this time of rapid change to really try and understand what the people and businesses and communities of this region want for the future. We wanted to listen and we did very thoroughly and we wanted to learn a lot about what people think and what people believe will be important and having listened and learned we are now going to lead because one of the other messages from our survey and from our partners is they do want this network to exert clear decisive leadership in partnership with them and with others to achieve the ambitions for the future. I want all of you to think today and far beyond today about how you in the different parts of the organisation network in which you work – how you are going to exert that really clear, collaborative leadership with our communities and our partners and I would like us to hold ourselves to account year on year about how we are achieving, not just the numbers and the targets but how we are exerting that leadership for our region. We don’t do things to people we achieve things through people, through individuals, through businesses, through communities, through partners and if we are in any way deficient or moderate in the level of skill we have at working through and with people then we need to invest more in that. 

At this start of the new century, the early years of this new century are an incredibly important stage for us in the highlands and islands, we and our predecessors have been in this business of transforming our region for 40 years now and there is a huge legacy of achievement and success for the highlands and islands has brought about for itself in that time. For the last thing we would need to do at this point is to be self-congratulatory or complacent or settle on a plateau so if any of you are feeling that the job is substantially done and we can tread water from here on – forget it, forget it. The challenges facing our region on the very periphery of North Western Europe – I mean we are at the margins of a continent which is increasingly far away from the growing centres of power, influence, economic decision-making world. That peripherality which we have needs to be turned into something through which we can really build our future economy and community. The scale of the economic and technological and political and other changes in the world is actually hard to fathom with the scale of what is happening in China, India and Brazil is going to tilt the world in a wholly different direction in the 21st century from the one we have been used to for the whole of our lives. And we are like at the antipodies of all of that – if I could just use that analogy – we are at another corner, or edge of the world from where most of the investment action, development action in growth is happening – so how do we succeed in a wholly different environment from the one in which we have all grown up and done our work?  It calls on us to use all of our ambition, all of our commitment for the future of our own region. It calls on us to share and extend all of our knowledge as a share because I think we have a long way to go to share all our knowledge among us most effectively. And it means we have to look outwards like never before to things that are happening in other parts of the world. Looking outward is not a challenge just for people who are badged global connections. They have been the leaders of this movement but internationalism and global awareness is something for every single person in this network, whatever role they perform. We are in the process, over this winter, spring, summer – I don’t know what season this is – but over the winter/spring/summer that we are supposedly having soon we are in the process of changing gear in our network, and in our region, so that over time we can increasingly focus on higher value products, services and activities that bring better opportunities, better jobs and increasingly flourishing economy and communities. And one of the new words – its not a brand new word – but its a new word is going to be very prominent in our work in the next decades from here on – and that’s sustainable and we are going to challenge ourselves like never before to think how we build and make flourishing a sustainable economy, sustainable communities, sustainable environments. We want to – I’m sure all of us feel this that because of the passion we have for our region our long term vision is that we want to leave a great legacy for future generations – one that they can feel proud of – one that they can look back on and say, “didn’t they do well for us?”. That means it has to be economically, socially, culturally and environmentally sustainable. I’m not sure that we know all the ways to do that yet and we want to stretch our minds and stretch our learning so that over the years ahead we build that into the heart of our activities. 

Well what does Smart Successful Highlands and Islands Version 2 all about?  It moves on from the first version quite deliberating because our world is moving very fast. Having listened to the people and businesses of the Highlands and Islands it’s very clear what we need to focus upon and that’s what we are going to do. We are committing ourselves today to growing the population of the Highlands and Islands so that in 15 or 20 years time this is a region of half a million people – today its about 433,000 so we have a substantial commitment that we are making to grow on that figure over the next 15 or 20 years. The evidence is that people in every part of the region see growing population as part of their future success and prosperity and its up to us, with our partners, and our communities to help bring that about. We will need to change gear in order to achieve that but achieve it I am determined that we will. Alongside that we have an ambition to build 20,000 or more full-time equivalent job opportunities in the region, in all parts of the region over these years. That’s about 10 per cent  more than the current figure. Tough though it is we are going to commit to working with our businesses and using our own expertise so that personal and household incomes can rise over that period by 10-15 per cent from where they are now. And we want to make sure that this region is regarded internationally as a world-beating region in terms of its attractiveness for its natural environment, which is not so hard, the excitement of the communities around the Highlands and Islands, the sustainable development principles which have been embraced over the coming decades. We are starting from a pretty good starting point there but we have more to achieve. Scotland is already one of the most renowned countries in Europe for its attractiveness for eco-tourism and we know from speaking to our colleagues who work in tourism that the ambition for Scotland is to be number one in Europe for that very sustainable purpose. We heard yesterday about the arts and culture and creativity and what that can bring to our society and there is no question about I think that many of us had our minds stretch and informed and our knowledge expanded by the discussions yesterday afternoon. So we are committing to helping build, with all our partners and communities a modern and temporary, progressive, prominent, welcoming, diverse society that will be sustainable for future generations. And that requires us, as we know, to have very open arms, very welcoming approach to people who come here to visit - which we are used to – people who come here to study – which we are not used to, and people who come here to work and settle and to the extent that our communities and we ourselves perhaps are not as welcoming and open as we might be – but that’s a change for the future. 

Let me say a few things, if I may, about some of the key features and drivers of our strategy for our future. I’ve mentioned population and its deliberately up there at the top because if we can achieve a population of half a million in our region over the next 15 or 20 years then think of the number of creative, inventive, committed, capable additional people that we will have to strengthen all of our economies and society. That’s about 70,000 more people dispersed hopefully around all parts of our region – cities, towns, glens, straths, islands and the rest. Think what that can do to the strengthening of businesses, to the strengthening of communities, having more people around to serve the purposes of our economy. If anyone thinks that 70,000 people over 15 to 20 years is unattainable then let me say that that’s an annual growth rate if it were averaged out about 0.7 per cent. The Highland Council part of our region and the Orkney part of our region achieved their population growth rate of 1 per cent, not 0.7 per cent , in the year 2003-2004. So this is entirely achievable and we need to commit to doing all that is necessary to bring it about. Our partners in local government and the other public agencies have encouraged us and want us to take the lead in driving forward that campaign - all of them need to support it don’t they in housing infrastructure, transport infrastructure, water and sewerage, all of that .. of course these are part of it but we are setting out an ambition today to grow this region to half a million people within the next generation. The places that the Highlands and Islands need to match the wonderful environment we have in most places – lets face it its not just the design, the buildings, the streets and the landscapes and so on – its much more about what happens in the towns, villages and communities – all that stuff from yesterday, all the young people are telling us, needs to spread itself around the region even more. Productivity is a key issue for us – we need to be an economically successful region, GDP matters, productivity matters and we heard yesterday just some of the ideas about what we and the others can do to strengthen productivity. This may be the toughest one and there are ideas around but I am sure we need to strengthen about how the pay – the pay in this region can basically grow over the years for as many people as possible. And the prospects for the region are high. This is a distinctive region like no other in the UK. Its very hard to find anywhere else in Britain which shares an improving economy strengthening as fast as our is, alongside a quality of life that we heard about yesterday. I don’t want anyone to sound complacent about that – you know some of our schools can get better, many of our communities can get more friendly and exciting and inclusive so we are not on a plateau – we are on a slope which is going upwards and we are all going to help it there. A few words of how we are going to achieve this. Well, you know we are known as a network which invests, that’s what we are known for and the investment we have had in the last year as we were told yesterday, has been the highest its ever been. The investment we have is a quarter of what Scottish Enterprise has for central and southern Scotland. Its not a tenth – it’s a quarter. And one of the reasons we have attained that level of investment from the Executive is that this network has shown its ability to deliver great results from the investment it has had and we hope that pattern will continue. But the message I want to leave you with about investment is not about the size of it – its about the impact we can make with it.   And one of the corners we need to turn I think over these coming years is to achieve greater leverage with our public investment, foundation investment and personal investment. And it would be great if we could say when we come back here next year and in five years’ time or so that not only has our investment from the government held at a high level but we have been able to achieve much more with it through the skills and capacities of everyone in this network. So please ask yourself how can we use the investment to lever even more from other sources. But we want to rebalance the network a bit so that over the years the investment we make is balanced by some other things which also make a difference and so what we are launching today in this strategy is that investment is going to be balanced by three other very important things. The second of these long term investments are influence. People want us to be influential over what happens in our region and if you look at the priorities that people have said to us in the survey whether it’s for transport or UHI or population or other things I’m afraid we can’t find a cheque book for these things and you can’t really sign a cheque for population growth. Its not our job to sign a cheque for major transport infrastructure - which I want to come back to in a second – its not our job primarily to be the investor in the creation and success of UHI but we can and need to be highly influential with our partners in achieving the ambitions for this region. So I ask you – are we skilled, organised and energised about being influential not just within the Highlands and Islands but with the decision-makers in public, private and other places in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Brussels and other continents because that what we need to be. The third “I” is about innovation and I recommend this I to all of us in this network as well as all those we serve in the wider community – the world is changing incredibly fast – brains combined with technology are bringing us things that were unthinkable even last year, far less a decade ago. If we are not innovative we are going nowhere but yesterday we saw stunning examples of innovation by people of all age groups and I would like us – I would like our network – to have an even stronger reputation over the years for being innovative and flexible and adaptive, and responsive to all these opportunities that come along. So again I ask all of you to take back the message about innovation, for yourselves and your colleagues, in the way we work, in the things we do, things we recognise out there as being important for our future. And the four “I” is international – in one sense we have always been international because most parts of our economy depend to some extent, to an increasing extent on the global economy and international connections. Some years ago I had the privilege of working in Orkney where we discovered together that every sector of the Orkney economy is dependent on its national forces, competitive forces, international ownership, international trade and markets and the truth of it is that’s the case all over our economy. What’s happening in Stornoway today is about an international market in renewable energies. What’s happening in Fort William this week and next week is part of a global change fuelled by new technologies invented somewhere in the world and the competition that Scotland faces for attracting visitors is a hugely international competitive market because its got some 136 countries all competing for the same visitors. We happen just to have some stunning edges but we are not complacent about them. So I say to you in whatever part of this network you work what are you going to do?  What are you going to change so that your international knowledge, outlook, connections, activities, investments become commonplace in the future in a way that they may not have been in the past. And I leave no-one out of that – I leave no-one out of that. So if our people who do facilities management, for example, say to me “well international is not for us – that’s for other people” – I say stop … you are managing our facilities, are they benchmarked to the best international standards of energy consumption and other things … and if they’re not, then why don’t we get them that way. So internationalism is going to reach everyone in this network and far beyond and we are going to invite all the people who work for us to contribute their ideas about that for the future. Let me say a few words as time goes on because it is, about broadband. By the end of this year we will have broadband into every community in the Highlands and Islands area – by its efforts, through its partners and its determination we will achieve that in 6 months from now. Now there are two new challenges which face us from then on. We need to stop thinking for a while about the plumbing and pipework because that will largely have been achieved – its all about the economic, and social, and educational benefits that we pump through these wires and pipes and it won’t be worth a penny if we can’t bring that off in every single part of our region. But the other thing I want to say about broadband is this – in the same way as we didn’t rest on our laurels when ISDN got pushed around the region nor can we afford to sit on our laurels when broadband gets around the region because coming over the hill even faster than ever is what I think they call next generation broadband which is 30-40 times faster than what any of us have got access to today and its in the market now. So the question will quite quickly become – how are we going to get next generation broadband into every one of our communities – and that’s a challenge for the future and one that doesn’t stop. We will soon be ready to make an announcement but I just want to share with you today, we’re not ready to announce it today but we will be shortly, that we’ve been building a really potentially powerful set of connections with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab which is one of the hot-beds of inventions in the whole world, and we have built up a relationship with them so that some of the things invented in MIT Media Lab in Massachusetts can be built by small and medium sized enterprises in the Highlands and Islands. And within the next few weeks we will be ready to tell a really ambitious story about that – and just an indicator of technology, internationalism and how inventions from the world can be created and built in our region.

Time is racing and I just want to say a few other things before I finish. Now we listened powerfully to what the communities and businesses said to us and one of the things said to us was that at the top of everyone’s tree was than transport investment really matters to the future of this region. Transport came No. 1 from everyone in every part of the region and we intend to respond to that with our partners. What we fully intend to do – well we’re not a major investor in transport but we do want to be a primary influence of transport because we know that transport is a major lubricant of economic, social, educational success for our future and everyone feels and wants to respond to that. My view is that we need to be hugely ambitious about capital investment in the transport of this region for the next decade or two. A sustained long-term commitment to major capital investment and transport in this region – that’s what people want and that’s what we have to make sure is delivered. Far from lacking any ambition or wanting to talk down the amount of investment that is needed and will need to be brought here we could not be more ambitious and I believe the cash sums that are needed still need to be worked out by the Executive, by Hitrans – in partnership with ourselves – and many others. What I wanted to share with you now is our ambitions for this are bigger than they have ever been in any generation in the past. I am old enough to remember that when people put together a plan to transform the road infrastructure in the Inner Moray Firth area by building a brand new road from Perth to Dornoch and spanning three firths – the Beauly, Cromarty and Dornoch Firths – by brand new bridges opens up opportunities for the growth of the population and economy of that part of Scotland. And many people back in that generation rubbished it as being a pipe dream. Of course it wasn’t a pipe dream - with commitment and ambition it came about and that part of our region has been winning and gaining the benefits of that ever since. That’s the scale of transport investment that we need for the future – it needs to be in different areas, it needs to be in air services, in airports – in railways and trains – in ferries and ports and in roads and public transport. Our ambitions are at the top end of what this region needs and they will each match what is now being done in central and southern Scotland in this decade and what will need to be done in the Highlands and Islands in the next and we look forward – with our business community, our residential communities and our partners to helping achieve that in the future. As you heard UHI receives its ‘title’ in 2007 we hope and a hugely important aim for our region, building on renewables of many kinds is also critical for our region. Building on science and technology – there are 10 sectors of science and technology in this region already – many of them unstated, unsung, unknown and we want to build on these and extend them for the future. Arts, culture and creativity will be big business in this region in the next decade as will tourism. VisitScotland tell us that Scotland’s international brand is iconic in the world and the words that are used about Scotland are the words of the Highlands and Islands. They are the words “human”, “dramatic”, “enduring”. And top that with a contemporary commitment to technology and to learning, to internationalism and you have a great set of products and opportunities here. What we also know is the that the people who come to visit the Highlands and Islands now are looking for the same things as people who work and live in the Highlands and Islands so its not that visitors and tourism is running counter to the aims and ambitions of our people they sit very competently together.

So I’m going to stop now by just sharing these few words with you that as a unified network we will be working vigorously, and creatively to achieve all the aims of a smart, successful Highlands and Islands. We are highly ambitious for our region, for its future and with confidence and our people are confident too, our population is confident that this region can continue to flourish and become one of the most successful, rural regions in Europe. 

Thank you for building that vision together.