AGAINST what is still a pretty grim economic backdrop, regardless of what you might have heard in the recent “stability” Budget, there have been at least a couple of reasons to be cheerful this week from a Scottish perspective.

It has not all been good news by any means, with Bank of Scotland’s latest PMI (purchasing managers’ index) report on Monday highlighting a fairly unappealing current macroeconomic picture, even though economic growth north of the Border in the first quarter outstripped expansion in the UK as a whole. The PMI survey showed that Scottish manufacturing output fell again in June. So much for Chancellor George Osborne’s vision of “a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers”.

Mr Osborne, as we know from his Budgets, likes a bit of theatre. He also likes a cautionary tale, as shown by his warnings in the run-up to the independence referendum about inward investment in Scotland being damaged by constitutional uncertainty.

So it is perhaps appropriate to observe that the latest inward investment figures for Scotland have this week shone a beam of Super Trouper spotlight intensity on Mr Osborne’s gloomy economic stage.

Given the figures showed record numbers of projects attracted and jobs created or safeguarded, they certainly dispelled the fantastical storyline that appetite for investment in Scotland would have been hit in the fiscal year that took in last September’s knife-edge referendum on independence.

Specifically, the figures for the year to March that were unveiled by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon show that taxpayer-backed Scottish Development International (SDI) helped to generate £433 million of planned inward investment in Scotland. This planned investment came in the form of 91 projects, nearly 17 per cent more than in the prior 12 months.

These projects, the First Minister noted, were expected to create or safeguard 9,659 jobs. This figure is nearly 30 per cent higher than the planned employment from projects attracted in the prior 12 months.

Ms Sturgeon declared, as she unveiled the figures, that it was clear that Scotland had now established itself firmly as the most successful part of the UK, outside London, in terms of attracting inward investment.

Accountancy firm Ernst & Young’s recent annual attractiveness survey had indicated that foreign direct investment in Scotland held up well in 2014. And the EY report highlighted Scotland’s increasing attractiveness to foreign companies. The more up-to-date Scottish Government figures, which include investments in Scotland from elsewhere in the UK as well as from overseas, are even brighter in terms of the sharp increases in project numbers and jobs.

There is surely no denying now that the dire warnings from senior figures in the business and political communities over the dangers to inward investment from the Scottish constitutional issue were wide of the mark. You cannot argue with the hard numbers.

That is not to say that the bright inward investment figures are enough to dispel the broader macroeconomic gloom, which looks likely to intensify in the wake of further swingeing cuts in welfare provision confirmed in last week’s Budget.

However, at a time when the domestic economic scene is so difficult, success on the international stage is absolutely crucial. With exporters continuing to struggle, Scotland’s undoubted success in winning overseas investment is all the more important, with both this week’s figures and the EY report highlighting the country’s attractiveness to US investors.

Hopefully Mr Osborne, now that his worries over inward investment in Scotland have apparently proven unfounded, will also take some encouragement from this bright spot on the economic stage. After all, given the consistent disappointments on the UK economic front in recent years, surely he will be keen to celebrate any successes that come along?

And, given the never-ending debate about the increasing dominance of London, Mr Osborne should also welcome any signs that the opportunities for wealth creation are being spread around the United Kingdom.

Of course, such results on the inward investment front are not just a matter of good fortune.

Ms Sturgeon rightly highlighted the key part played by SDI in bringing in the inward investment.

And it is not just the headline numbers that are encouraging. The figures show that 3,192 high-value-added jobs were included in the planned inward investment employment total.

These are jobs that pay at least 20 per cent more than the Scottish average salary rate or are in the research, design and development field, or both.

And the top three sectors for inward investment in Scotland in the year to March, in terms of the number of projects, were technology and engineering, accounting for 33 per cent of the total, oil and gas, comprising 16.5 per cent, and financial and business services, making up 15.4 per cent.

Scottish Enterprise chief executive Lena Wilson flagged the importance of a highly-skilled workforce and research capabilities north of the Border in attracting inward investors.

The second piece of good news this week was the news that fantasy sports company FanDuel, based in Edinburgh, had raised $275 million of funding from investors including private equity giant KKR, Google Capital and Time Warner Investments.

This major funding round has been undertaken to help FanDuel realise its ambitions of huge growth in the US market, in which it is already enjoying significant success.

FanDuel, like fast-growing flight search engine pioneer Skyscanner, is showing what can be done on an international stage by capitalising on Scotland’s software expertise.

The huge success of these companies, and Scotland’s achievements in the likes of computer gaming, must surely bode well for the future.

Scotland’s software talent has been recognised by inward investors, such as US investment bank JP Morgan.

In December, JP Morgan unveiled plans for a further significant expansion of its European technology centre in Glasgow, which has software development at its heart.

Specifically, JP Morgan revealed its intention to boost its already 1000-strong workforce at the Glasgow centre through the creation of up to 500 more jobs over the following three years.

In years gone by, there was much debate, in terms of inward investment, about whether or not Scotland was attracting enough highly-skilled jobs. There were also worries about the permanency of the jobs created, and concerns that inward investment might be too much of a numbers game.

Scotland paid a heavy price when thousands of electronics manufacturing jobs were axed as companies shifted operations to lower-cost countries.

Companies will always move their operations around from time to time, and change their plans, so there are never any guarantees when it comes to inward investment.

However, one of the keys to success is to ensure that inward investors are setting up shop in Scotland because of the skills on offer, rather than on cost grounds. There are encouraging signs that this is increasingly the case.

And the fact that Scotland is being favoured by FanDuel and Skyscanner, which given the nature of their businesses could operate from pretty much anywhere, bolsters this picture of a country viewed as an increasingly attractive place from which to run technology operations.

Scotland’s international reputation in the technology sector will hopefully grow further as companies around the world view what is going on, creating a virtuous circle that will bring more inward investment.