RUSSELL BORTHWICK

HAVING lived and worked away from Aberdeen for over 20 years, I have been struck since returning at the amount of negative energy that is expended here looking back at what might have or didn’t happen.

Yes, there have been let-downs, disappointments and U-turns but we need to draw a line and focus our efforts on writing the next chapter in the region’s success story.

After a period of inertia, we are now playing catch-up with other areas but the good news is that there is a plan and it is gathering pace.

The regional economic strategy, the city region deal, the city centre masterplan, the newly formed VisitAberdeenshire destination marketing organisation and much more is all part of this plan.

With a range of public and private sector-led projects approved and many of them already underway, this represents an exciting and necessary step-change in the region’s infrastructure and future planning.

The Chamber is tracking the projects that make up this investment which is due to be delivered in the region over the next few years, and currently this totals almost £5billion and growing.

This includes transport, digital infrastructure, leisure & retail, culture, hotels, business space and much more but the total excludes residential development and planned new schools.

The document is due to be published this month with the purpose of providing pride and confidence to the people of Aberdeen city and Aberdeenshire and sending out the message that our city region is open for business while reminding politicians of their responsibility to deliver.

A number of these major infrastructure improvements, particularly around transport and including the long awaited 36-mile Aberdeen western bypass, provide solutions to decades-old problems and are already beginning to speed up commerce and enhance quality of life.

Critically, this pipeline of projects also includes ambitious forward-looking schemes that play to Opportunity North East’s brief to anchor oil and gas here for the long term while enabling the necessary diversification of our economic base, including the Oil & Gas Technology Centre and other innovation hubs, expansion of Aberdeen Harbour, a new Exhibition & Conference Centre, and the world’s first floating offshore windfarm - to name just a few.

We live in highly competitive and dynamic times and to ensure the realisation of these plans, we need people and organisations to bring investment, innovation and jobs here, so we can’t make this seem unattractive and too difficult or they will go elsewhere.

Collectively, we need to get consign the past to the past, get on the front foot, embrace the change and deliver at pace.

As we manage the current tranche of change, we need to be mindful of the fact that this is just the start.

Plenty of evidence exists pointing to the fact that failure to invest in strategic planning and infrastructure can take years to reverse.

Our thoughts need to start turning now to the next phase of activity from 2025 and beyond.

Only by doing this will we deliver the legacy that we would wish for future generations.

Russell Borthwick is chief executive of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce