Economy

Language and Culture

It is estimated that Gaelic is spoken by some 70,000 people, many of whom live in the Hebrides (the islands off Scotland's west coast). The Scottish Executive pro­vided 13.3 million to support Gaelic in 2001-02. Broadcasting is the largest single area, accounting for more than 8 million annually. In 2000-01 there were 1,862 chil­dren in Gaelic-medium education in 60 primary schools and 326 pupils in 14 sec­ondary schools.

The annual Edinburgh Festival is one of the world's leading cultural occasions. Edinburgh Festivals bring about 120 million into the Scottish economy each year. The International Festival, Jazz Festival, Festival Fringe, Book Festival, Film Festival and Military Tattoo combine to make the Edinburgh Festival the largest arts event in the UK.

In the last 50 years the Scottish economy has moved away from the traditional industries of coal, steel and shipbuilding. Extraction of offshore oil and gas, growth in services and, more recently, developments in high-technology industries (such as chemicals, electronic engineering and information technology) have taken their place. Manufacturing still remains important, however, and Scotland's manufacturing exports in 2000 were valued at 18.3 billion.

The key features of the Scottish economy include:

Electronics. Scotland has one of the biggest concentrations of the electronics industry in Western Europe, employing about 40,000 workers. Electrical and instrumental engineering exports account for 56 per cent of Scotland's manufactured exports.

Oil and gas. Offshore oil and gas production has made a significant contribution to the Scottish economy in the last 30 years. Many of the UK's 115 offshore oilfields are at to the east of the Isles of Shetland and Orkney or off the east coast of the mainland.

Whisky. Whisky production continues to be important to Scotland. There are 90 distilleries in Scotland, most of them in the north-east.

Tourism is a major industry, supporting about 193,000 jobs. In 1999 tourists spent 2.5 billion in the country and there were around 12.4 million tourist trips including those originating in Scotland.

Financial services. A number of financial institutions are based in Scotland, including insurance companies, fund managers, unit trusts and investment trusts. There are four Scottish-based clearing banks, which have limited rights to issue their own banknotes.

Forestry. Scotland accounts for just under half of the UK's timber production. In the last ten years there has been significant international and local investment in wood-based panel production and in pulp and paper processing.

Fishing. Fishing remains significant, particularly in the north-east and in the Highlands and Islands. Today Scotland accounts for 70 per cent by weight and 60 per cent by value of the fish landed in the UK by British trawlers. Fish farming, particu­larly of salmon, has grown in importance. Today Scotland produces the largest amount of farmed salmon in the EU.

Дата добавления: 2014-10-15