SCOTTISH companies have been urged to make sure they apply to win business through the pioneering £1.13 billion Glasgow and the Clyde Valley City Deal, as a first procurement event takes place today.

Dozens of Tier 1 suppliers, typically larger firms who would fulfil a main contractor type role, are expected to be in attendance at Glasgow City Chambers to find out more about areas such as the total value of contracts on offer, the programme of works and the timescales involved.

The procurement process is expected to be similar to the one used for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

For the Games Scottish businesses won around 70 per cent of the Tier 1 related contracts, which was worth around £290m.

Those behind the City Deal are promising a "streamlined bid and tender process" with the majority of opportunities advertised through the Public Contracts Scotland online portal.

Information events for second tier suppliers as well as small and medium enterprises are also planned for the coming months.

Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said: Although it is over a slightly longer time frame the scale of it is about twice the size of the Commonwealth Games so the opportunities, especially in the construction business, have a scale to it that makes it worth going after.

"I am happy to see this [procurement] being done so early in the process as it is not so long since they signed City Deal. To see the authorities going out with a co-ordinated procurement route has to be good news."

All eight local authorities participating in the City Deal - East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire - will be represented at today's gathering.

Gordon Matheson, chair of the Clyde Valley Cabinet, which is the decision making body for the City Deal, said: "The Glasgow and Clyde Valley City Deal presents tremendous opportunities for local businesses during the construction stage and beyond, and we will use the procurement process to promote the payment of the living wage and other community benefits to ensure that as many people as possible gain from this unprecedented group of projects."

The exact nature of the initial projects to be funded through the initiative, which will run over 20 years, has yet to be announced.

Three contracts relating to the City Deal are already said to have been advertised, and have a value of £78m, with a steady stream of others expected over the next few months.

Mr Patrick said: "From some of the consultations we have had we understand the councils will act to fund the delivery of a lot of the projects quicker than the time frame and then reclaim the money they are due from the Scottish and UK government.

"So the level of activity in the programme will be earlier than you might otherwise have thought.Getting right in amongst it at the early stages is important."

It has been suggested the infrastructure work will include transport improvements and regeneration projects.

There has also been an ambition to build more small business and incubator space across the region along with an increase in life sciences facilities.

The funding of the City Deal sees the local authorities borrowing £130m while both the UK and Scottish Governments are putting in £500m of grant funding.

It is not yet known how the predominantly Labour controlled local authorities will work with the SNP regimes at Holyrood and Westminster.

It has been predicted the City Deal will generate 15,000 construction jobs and 28,000 permanent jobs once works are complete.

Along with that it has been estimated to help leverage £3.3 billion of private sector investment and provide a 4.4 per cent uplift in gross value added (GVA) in the region.

Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils started formal negotiations on a £2.9bn City Deal in March this year.