First Minister Alex Salmond today beat the drum for Scotland's whisky industry as he continued a series of official engagements in China.
He said tough times for exporters would ease and as markets recovered Scotland would be well-placed to maximise opportunities.
China is already the 15th largest export market for Scotch whisky with shipments in 2007 valued at more than £40 million.
What is claimed to be the biggest contingent of whisky distillers and experts will visit Shanghai next month for a touring whisky festival and tasting event held in 15 countries worldwide.
After a media launch and reception in Shanghai, Mr Salmond said the event would be a "fantastic opportunity" for the industry.
"The increasing popularity of whisky in China makes it an obvious destination for this global whisky roadshow and I hope that many of the visitors who come to try a real Scotch get a taste for Scotland," he said.
"As Whisky Month prepares to get under way in Scotland there has never been a better time to visit our wealth of distilleries, enjoy our scenic majesty and join us for a dram."
Plans were meanwhile announced today for Scottish experts to help train Chinese pharmacists and hospital managers.
The training programme will involve the NHS in Scotland, Edinburgh University, China's ministry of health and Chinese pharmaceutical firm Asiapharm.
It follows a pharmaceutical research deal between Asiapharm and an Oban-based marine biotechnology company struck last year.
The scheme announced today by Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop, who is visiting China with Mr Salmond, will be funded by the Chinese.
It will involve University of Edinburgh helping to design courses and providing lecturers to train China's next generation of pharmacists and hospital management executives.
The NHS in Scotland will give guidance, monitor training programmes and co-ordinate lectures from other Scottish institutions.
Ms Hyslop said: "This training programme - which represents a major investment in Scotland's medical expertise - will see hundreds of senior managerial and medical staff from hospitals across China learning from Scotland's excellence.
"We already have constructive life science links with China, which I witnessed first hand last year when a major pharmaceutical research partnership was forged between firms from our countries.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article