They want our cheese!

Martin Kerr often cites a book called Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. Today I discovered we at SDI should write our own book entitled They Want Our Cheese. You see, I always appreciated that we competed to bring jobs and investment to the Scotland. However, I didn't appreciate just how much the others wanted it too!

It's estimated that 60% of all global FDI now goes to emerging markets. Moreover, at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 just 5% of global FDI came from developing economies. Today that figure stands at around 35%. Developing countries are growing faster a developing their infrastructures at a phenomenal rate.

I listened to the Turkish Finance Minister say how within 10 years he wanted to achieve the EU average across almost every economic indicator. That represents growth of around 40% in that time. By 2050 they want to increase the size of the economy fivefold.

By investing in infrastructure and competing for FDI they want to catch France as the world's most popular tourist destination, match German engineering and overtake Italy as the worlds number one producer of fashion and textiles.

What really got me was matter of fact way he described it as "reasonably achievable."

In short, they want our cheese.

The Turkish Finance Minister