Reasons to be cheerful 2012

A retail poll in August last year named the city's Buchanan Street as the sixth best place to shop in the UK behind five London thoroughfares, including Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street.

The street, which commands rents of £250 per sq ft, boasts a number of upmarket outlets, including Apple and Molton Brown, as well as the House of Fraser department store. The street's Princes Square mall is undergoing a £5.5 million makeover, while a number of designer stores, including Agent Provocateur, Ralph Lauren, Cruise and Pretty Green, are located just a stone's throw away in the Merchant City.

FILM INDUSTRY

ABOUT £200 million has been generated by the film industry in Scotland over the last decade.

In the past 12 months, Hollywood A-listers including Brad Pitt, Susan Sarandon, Halle Berry and Scarlett Johansson have come to Glasgow, Edinburgh, and even Wishaw to film, and generated a buzz among locals keen to catch a glimpse of the stars.

A spokeswoman for Creative Scotland said production companies spend £20-£25m in Scotland every year.

She said: "Scotland is rapidly developing facilities and services, such as the proposed new studio centre near Pacific Quay, which will attract bigger productions to Scotland. Creative Scotland backs talent based in Scotland and has recently invested in a number of films, including Neds, Perfect Sense, You Instead and The Eagle. Attracting large-scale films such as World War Z, Under The Skin and Cloud Atlas not only shows the credibility of our production crew, it boosts our economy."

UNIVERSITY FEES

STUDENTS in Scotland will remain exempt from tuition fees while their counterparts south of the Border face charges of up to £9000 per year for their higher education.

Four-year degrees for students in all parts of the UK except Scotland are now the most expensive in the UK after the institutions announced plans to implement the maximum charge. Scots students will continue to study for free, however.

December saw a 0.1% rise in Scots applying to Scots universities compared to a slump in the rest of the UK, while there was a 7.6% increase in applications from EU students and a 23.8% rise in overseas students.

Robin Parker, president of the National Union of Students in Scotland, said: "It's great to see applications from Scottish students to Scottish universities remain steady – absolutely thanks to the right decision by the Scottish Parliament to keep education in Scotland free."

WHISKY

OUR national drink has defied the recession thanks to whisky's growing popularity in developing overseas markets, especially India, China and Brazil.

Recent figures revealed that Scotch whisky exports increased by 23% last year, and is now one of the country's most valuable trade items - worth more than £4.5 billion per year to the economy. Demand is such that some manufacturers are worried it could eventually outstrip supply.

CARE FOR THE ELDERLY

HEALTH Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has described improving care services for elderly Scots as her "personal priority".

In spite of pressures on the national budget, the SNP Government has vowed to retain free personal care for the elderly to enable them to continue to live independently in their own homes for as long as possible. It is offered without charge to anyone over 65 who needs it. In England and Wales, personal care – feeding, bathing, dressing, and help with medication – is offered only on a means-tested basis.

And while Scots pensioners and disabled people enjoy free bus travel at all times and on all routes, their counterparts south of the border can only travel for free during off-peak periods ... and all of us get free prescriptions.

SPACE TRAVEL

IT has long been rumoured that the Scottish Highlands will be the UK launch pad for Richard Branson's space tourism franchise. Last year, Edinburgh's Dream Escape was appointed the only travel agent in the country to sell the £125,000 Virgin Galactic space flights, due to commence in 2013. At the moment, take-off points are expected to be at Cape Canaveral and New Mexico, but the current overhaul of the UK space regulatory regime could clear the way for a UK Virgin Galactic base at Lossiemouth.

This has received the backing of both UK Science Minister David Willetts and the former Virgin Galactic company president, Edinburgh-born Will Whitehorn. Kinloss and Machrihanish in the Mull of Kintyre have also been suggested.

AND OF COURSE ... PANDAS

A SPECIAL delivery from China set Scotland apart from the rest of the UK when Edinburgh Zoo became home to the first giant pandas on British soil for more than 17 years.

The male and female pair, named Tian Tian and Yang Guang – but better known by their English monikers, Sunshine and Sweetie – arrived in the capital at the beginning of December, and immediately boosted visitor numbers to the zoo.

In the run-up to Christmas, ticket sales were up by about 80% at weekends, with a 200% boost in visitors on week days.

And while not everyone is happy about their arrival – "jealous" penguins in a neighbouring enclosure were said to be targeting panda visitors with their droppings – matchmaking zookeepers hope to welcome some panda cubs in the future, with Sunshine and Sweetie set to be properly introduced to each other in spring.

BIOTECHNOLOGY & LIFE SCIENCES

ITS most famous face as far as most Scots are concerned is probably Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep. But Scotland's biotechnology industry has grown at 30% per annum – twice as fast as the rest of Europe – and now employs more than 20,000 people, while more medical research is carried out per head of the population in Scotland than anywhere else in Europe, making it one of the fastest growing sectors. In Edinburgh, the £600m BioQuarter life sciences facility makes Scotland one of the world's top 10 centres for biomedical commercialisation. The universities of Dundee and St Andrews are among the top 10 international academic institutions for scientists. Scotland is also a global leader in animal bioscience and has the largest concentration of related expertise in Europe, while our life sciences companies have been attracting about £36m of equity investment per annum in recent years.

FESTIVALS

RESEARCH last year revealed that Edinburgh's festivals alone contributed more to the Scottish economy than golf, bringing in £261m compared to £191m for the nation's signature sport. With more than four million visitors each year, the festivals sustain 5200 jobs in various industries and increase local pride, according to 89% of respondents to the Festivals Impact Study. In addition, 93% of festival-goers said they are part of what makes Edinburgh special. T in the Park generates an estimated £18m to the economy, a combination of £7.5m for the Perth and Kinross area and £10.5m to tourism by the worldwide media coverage it attracts. It has pulled in superstar acts, including Beyonce, Jay-Z, Eminem and Lady Gaga in recent years. But music lovers are spoiled for choice with a wide variety of festivals on offer, with Celtic Connections catering to folk fans, while the Wickerman welcomes families and Rockness sees revellers party on the banks of Loch Ness.

COMEDY

LAST year's Edinburgh Festival featured more than 100 solo stand-up shows compared to just a handful 25 years ago, making the event one of the UK's prime opportunities to discover new talent. The event also attracted established stars including Phill Jupitus, Stewart Lee, Ed Byrne and Sarah Millican. Among the stars making their mark at past festivals are Eddie Izzard, Paul Merton and Michael McIntyre. Scotland's own comedy output is headlined by Glaswegians Kevin Bridges and Frankie Boyle, both of whom have achieved UK-wide recognition with regular TV appearances, while the The Stand comedy club – which has branches in Edinburgh and Glasgow – is now set to expand with a third outlet in Newcastle. The clubs already attract around 100,000 punters to their Scottish venues every year. Among the acts at his year's Glasgow International Comedy Festival (March 15 to April 1) are Russell Kane, Rory Bremner and Dara O'Briain. Visit www.glasgowcomedyfestival.com

FASHION

SCOTLAND can now boast a globally respected burgeoning fashion scene, with the Scottish Fashion Awards and Scottish Style Awards both helping to increase the recognition of the country's up-and-coming young designers. Fashion courses at Cardonald College and Glasgow School of Art (GSA) have helped generate talent, with Glaswegian Jonathan Saunders creating a collection for Topshop and presenting designs at New York Fashion Week, while Christopher Kane from Newarthill, near Motherwell, has created items worn by Samantha Cameron. Two other GSA graduates, Mhairi McNicol and Chloe Patience, founded Bebaroque tights, which have been seen decorating Kylie's pins, while Scots fashion photographer, Rankin, has shot everyone from Madonna to the Queen. Meanwhile, in the Hebrides, Harris Tweed, handwoven by islanders on Lewis, Harris, Uist and Barra, has returned to the catwalks in style.

GAMES

Scotland has become a creative powerhouse in the video games sector in the past 20 years, thanks to the success of firms like Rockstar North, responsible for the hugely successful Grand Theft Auto, and Dundee-based Realtime Worlds.

While there were mixed fortunes for the industry in recent years, with Realtime Worlds going into administration and claims last year that a lack of finance was holding developers back, there was a boost for the new generation of computer whiz-kids last year when Dundee's Abertay University opened the Institute of Arts, Media and Computer Games. Dundee-based Tag Games also expanded its staff from 27 to 50 in September last year, while the industry's trade body TIGA has urged the Scottish Government to establish a £100,000 creative content fund which it says would make Scotland "one of the best places in the UK to develop games".