The construction of a film studio in Scotland is a key part of a new three-year strategy to boost movie-making north of the Border.

Creative Scotland, the arts and creative industries funder, has unveiled its new strategy for film - a document that sets out a series of targets including finding greater funds for film-making, an increase in the number of films being made, and greater support for film-makers.

It also pledges to generate "increased incentives for film and television production which match - or better - the incentives of other territories" so that movie-makers decide to shoot in Scotland rather than rivals in the film world such as Ireland, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland or Europe.

Currently about £6.9 million is spent on film north of the Border, out of £363m in the UK as a whole, and on average only six feature films are made in Scotland annually.

These have recently included Under the Skin, which starred Scarlett ­Johansson, zombie blockbuster World War Z, The Railway Man, Cloud Atlas and Sunshine on Leith. Creative Scotland's new director of film, Natalie Usher, said Scotland needed to build a studio and increase film-making incentives to catch up with other countries, such as Northern Ireland, as well as simply making more films.

Northern Ireland has the Titanic Studios in Belfast, where the popular television series Game of Thrones is shot, while Wales has already committed to building a new studio in partnership with Pinewood.

Ms Usher said: "It is difficult when you cannot say anything [for commercial reasons], because it looks like nothing is happening - but that is not the case. People are working extremely hard and a lot of work is going on."

She added: "The film community are concerned about the film studio, about funding, and are asking 'why can we not be like Northern Ireland, why can't we have what they have got?'"

Iain Smith, the Scottish producer of films such as Seven Years in Tibet, Children of Men, Wanted and Cold ­Mountain, and chairman of the British Film Commission, said it was a "visionary yet pragmatic strategy". He added: "I am particularly pleased to see the much-needed conjunction of ­creativity/culture and commerce/industry being tackled seriously for the first time. This is just the beginning. With a policy like this to build on, the hard work can begin."

Gillian Berrie, the leading Scottish producer of films such as Under The Skin, who last year warned of the parlous state of an under-resourced film industry in Scotland, said: "Compared to where we were a year ago, this is promising - there has been a lot of positive talk and this shows there is will: we just need to find a way.

"I think that now there is ­leadership in place with Natalie - that makes an enormous difference.

"Every country that has tried to re-invigorate its film industry has empowered its producers, because they bring in the productions, and we need that hand-in-hand with a studio and the right infrastructure."

Scottish Enterprise is currently looking at about half a dozen business plans for studio sites around Glasgow and Edinburgh, but as yet no definite plan, with a key private investor on board, has been announced.

Private-sector bids to build the studio could cost between £15m and £74m, with the input of public funds from Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland, which has set aside £1m. Various studio plans in ­Scotland have been mooted over the years, but none - apart from the recent conversion of a large warehouse for the filming of TV series Outlander in Cumbernauld - have come to fruition.

Ms Berrie said the long ­failure to build a studio in ­Scotland was worthy of a "tragi-comedy" all of its own, but that she was hopeful a facility close to a city centre would be built.

Mr Smith said he was "cautiously hopeful". He added: "A studio for Scotland is essential but it has to be grown carefully."