Quality of opportunity

The Highlands and Islands of Scotland present exciting opportunities for business development. The area covered by the HIE Network extends to around 15,000 square miles, an area larger than Belgium. This means that there is room for choice, room for growth: room to breathe. The stress and costs of congestion associated with the major conurbations of the world is unknown in the Highlands and Islands.

With an expanding list of successful companies showing the way over the past few years, the area is being identified as the preferred location for the enterprising and the innovative. Whether a business is starting up or seeking to expand its operation, the Highlands and Islands offers a business environment and an overall quality of life which contrasts extremely favourably with what is available elsewhere.

The well-developed transport network and the latest generation telecommunications make the movement of goods and information easy and cost-effective. The low-cost of industrial property and the area's reputation for top-quality products and services are additional attractions.

The Highlands and Islands has its own skilled, adaptable, and extremely stable workforce which is as much at home in computing, electronics, and pharmaceuticals as in the traditional sectors of tourism, agriculture and the fishing industry.

For those who need to recruit from outside the area, the overall quality of life is a major attraction to incoming personnel. The standards of housing, schools, health care, amenities and recreational facilities are extremely high.

A surprisingly diverse collection of modern industries encompasses a broad range of technologies from bio-medical to business out-sourcing. Many of these businesses could have been located anywhere but have been attracted here by the quality of the commercial environment and the quality of life.