Press Release
6th April 2001
Compaq: Enterprise Committee to Quiz Electronics Bosses
The Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee is to take evidence from major players in the Scottish Electronics industry on the job losses at Compaq.
The Committee will meet with the high-tech bosses on the 24th of April at Sun Microsystems in Linlithgow to discuss how the Scottish electronics industry can improve the skills of its workforce and become able to compete on a world-wide basis for high-value, high-skill jobs.
The move comes after MSP for Greenock & Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, wrote to the Committee, expressing his concern at the recent spate of job losses in the sector and requesting that they investigate.
"The industry requires," he said, "through increased training and skills for its workforce, the ability to diversify and compete for high value, high skill contracts in the global market. We need to understand how the Scottish Executive can best help businesses to do this."
Mr McNeil welcomed the favourable response to his request as "a positive step towards understanding the wider picture and the issues which are facing the electronics industry in Scotland."
He continued:
"The announcement that Compaq in Erskine has become the latest plant which plans to substantially reduce its workforce is all the more disappointing in the light of the recent job losses at Fullarton's and Brands.
"It is a stark reminder of how vulnerable Inverclyde is to downturns in the electronics industry.
"While I will, of course, support the short term initiatives which are being put in place to manage the immediate situation, we need to look to the future. If we want long-term stability, we should build on the skills of the workforce and bring forward initiatives to encourage diversification. This would allow our electronics companies to compete globally for higher value, higher skill work.
"I have underlined the need to diversify and reduce our dependence on the electronics industry to Enterprise Minister, Wendy Alexander. I will continue to pursue this issue and have tabled Parliamentary Questions asking the exactly how the Executive will address the situation."
ENDS
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