Notwithstanding the burning issue of separate statehood with the state capital being the major bone of contention between the Telangana and coastal Andhra regions, Scottish government's international economic development arm finds Hyderabad as a city with lots of capacity for further growth.
“We would like to be in a place where the opportunities are more,” said Sottish Development International (SDI) chief executive officer Anne MacColl, a day after opening its first office in the South and third in India here on Thursday. SDI already has a British Deputy High Commission office in the city.
Terming Hyderabad as an "absolutely best choice" for their presence in South India, she said the city was strong in life sciences, information technology and education sectors, which also form three of the four focus areas for trade and business collaboration besides oil and energy sectors they were looking at in India. SDI’s mandate to facilitate partnerships and encourage a two-way investment in Scotland and India is largely driven by the demand from Scottish businesses and Hyderabad expects to provide such new opportunities.
She said a 25 per cent year-on-year growth had been witnessed in last two years in terms of number of companies coming to set up operations in India while Indian companies, including Wipro and TCS, had so far invested 700 million pounds in Scotland.
A visit by ministerial delegation along with representatives of Scottish companies to Hyderabad and other cities in South India is also being planned in November, said Mark Dolan, country manager, SDI.
