THE SNP has pledged to hold a competition for ideas to "transform" Scotland's economy, with £50 million of funding up for grabs for the winning project.
The party said the "National Challenge" will form part of a 10-year strategy to bring about a green recovery and create jobs.
The strategy will be brought forward within six months if the SNP is returned to Government following the Holyrood election, it said.
READ MORE: Alex Salmond accuses BBC and STV of 'effectively censoring' Alba Party
Ivan McKee, the SNP minister for trade, innovation and public finance, said: “The pandemic has changed the way we live and work, and it has accelerated changes in the economy.
"The next decade will be crucial to Scotland’s economic future as we rebuild from the pandemic, transition our economy to net zero and face the challenges and opportunities of new technology.
“That’s why - within the first six months - a re-elected SNP Government will bring forward a new 10-year strategy for economic transformation, setting out the steps we will take to deliver a green economic recovery and support new, good, green jobs, businesses and industries for the future.
“The National Challenge competition will support this work and empower us all to play our part in Scotland’s recovery.
"Just as responding to Covid-19 has been a collective effort, so will be our economic recovery."
Scottish Labour's finance spokesman, Daniel Johnson, described the move as "bizarre", claiming it showed that the SNP were "out of ideas".
He said: "If Nicola Sturgeon is looking for ways to support our economy, Scottish Labour's manifesto will be published next week and contains plenty of proposals that come in under £50m.
READ MORE: Scottish Labour calls for better opposition than 'game-playing' Tories
"Rather than constitutional upheaval, Scotland's economy needs a plan that matches the resources available to the scale of the challenge.
"That is why we have unveiled a £1.2 billion plan to support jobs and help Scotland's economy recover from the pandemic.
"Scottish Labour's jobs guarantee would be the biggest job creation scheme in the history of devolution.
"Our plan for high streets would re-start local economies and attract tourists from across the UK to holiday in Scotland."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel