There was much to grab the attention in the latest foreign direct investment figures for Scotland published this week.

The top lines were mostly around the very impressive continuing strength of Scotland on the inward investment stage - something that you would imagine will stick in the craws of the nation’s detractors.

There was also an eye-catching shift when it came to the rankings of Scotland’s two major cities on the number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects won, in the figures published by accountancy firm EY in its latest attractiveness survey on Monday.

Glasgow, with 27 projects, became Scotland’s leading city for FDI for the first time in five years. Edinburgh held this top spot between 2020 and 2023. And Glasgow was the second-most popular UK city outside London for FDI, after Manchester.

This is surely an encouraging fillip for Glasgow, which appears in many ways to have struggled more than Edinburgh in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, notably when it has come to its city centre.

Edinburgh remained in good shape on the inward investment front in 2024, which was good to see from a Scottish perspective. The Scottish capital was not that far adrift of Glasgow last year. Aberdeen also ranked well among UK cities for FDI projects won.

Scotland’s “three major cities are once again in the UK top 10 cities”, EY observed, with Edinburgh having secured 24 projects and Aberdeen 12 projects.

The overall Scottish figures for FDI were very encouraging.

........

© Herald Scotland