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This is a matter for individual colleges.

The latest published figures for 2014 estimate that Scottish exports to the rest of the UK are worth £48.5 billion making it Scotland’s largest export market. We are therefore well aware of the importance of this market to the Scottish economy. Our trade and investment strategy published in March this year set out a comprehensive action plan to boost Scotland’s export activity and to make it clear that Scotland is open forbusiness, including with the rest of the UK. The opening of an innovation and investment hub in London, for example, will play a crucial role in promoting Scottish goods and services to existing and new customers and markets in London and beyond.

The current Executive Management Team comprises:

• Ron Smith – Chief Executive Officer

• Derek Banks – Finance and Commercial Director

• Jules Matteoni – Operations Director

• Mike Stewart – Business Development Director

• Sonia Rafferty – Human Resource Director

The Chief Executive Officer, Chief Commercial Officer and Finance Director appointed by the previous owners left the business in September 2015, August 2015 and May 2016 respectively.

The volume of freight transported through the airport in each year since 2011 is:

Source: CAA

All information on the Board Members of Scottish Enterprise is publically available on their website and can be found here:

https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/about-us/our-leadership/board-members?usedevice=m

Details of the remuneration of each Board Member of Scottish Enterprise can be found in their most recent Annual Report and Accounts:

https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/knowledge-hub/articles/publication/annual-reports

All information on the Board Members of Highlands and Islands Enterprise is publically available on their website and can be found here:

http://www.hie.co.uk/about-hie/who-we-are/board-members/

Details of the remuneration of each Board Member of Highlands and Islands Enterprise can be found in their most recent Annual Report and Accounts:

http://www.hie.co.uk/about-hie/policies-and-publications/annual-reports.html

The passengers numbers as reported by the CAA between 2011 and 2015 are listed in the following table.

Source: CAA

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) use performance measures to help monitor the contribution they make in terms of their economic and social impact on the longer term goals of Scotland’s Economic Strategy. These performance measures are set out in their Operating Plan.

The 2016-19 Operating Plan can be found here:

http://www.hie.co.uk/about-hie/policies-and-publications/operating-plan.html

The Strategic Forum fosters a culture of collaboration between our economic development and skills agencies. Economic strengths since the establishment of the Strategic Forum were recognised in the recent Enterprise and Skills Review report. However, to deliver the step change necessary to realise our ambitions for Scotland to become a top performing OECD nation a refreshed and enhanced approach is required, as requested by stakeholders within the Ministerial Review Group. The Enterprise and Skills Review report, arising from Phase I of the Review, sets out this framework.

The decisions reached by the review will further drive alignment by establishing a new statutory board to coordinate the activities of SE, HIE, SDS and SFC, improve the measurement of their impact on delivering outcomes, establish a new vehicle to focus on the specific enterprise support needs of the South of Scotland and protect HIE’s delivery of support in the Highlands and Islands. The review also made decisions to promote Scotland as an open and international economy, streamline the innovation landscape and undertake a review of the learning journey focused on sustained employment.

The Review builds on successes delivered by the Strategic Forum which has a remit to provide strategic leadership and set the direction of travel for public and private sector bodies. It explores the most significant, cross-cutting strategic issues and agrees how to respond. By establishing shared future priorities, the Strategic Forum has provided a platform to develop coherent, united leadership within member organisations and to wider Team Scotland partners with which individual bodies closely engage.

The co-chairs of the Strategic Forum, when its remit was last revised in 2014, were the Cabinet Secretary Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth and the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning.

Core Membership includes the Chairs and Chief Executives of the main economic development and employment agencies: Scottish Enterprise; Highlands and Islands Enterprise; Scottish Funding Council; Skills Development Scotland; and VisitScotland. Scottish Government directors with lead responsibility for each of the agencies, along with the Chief Economist and Director General Energy, Enterprise and Digital are also members.

Ministerial membership of the Strategic Forum has evolved with portfolio responsibilities. It is co-chaired by Cabinet Secretaries with responsibility for the economy and for education. Membership has included the Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for infrastructure and the Minister with responsibility for enterprise or business. Depending on agenda topics, other ministers have attended individual meetings.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-03752 on 10 November 2016. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Strategic Forum met 20 times between November 2007 and April 2015 to consider topics of strategic importance to the Scottish economy and to align actions in addressing these issues to deliver the maximum impact.

Topics covered at meetings of the Strategic Forum, many discussed at more than one meeting over this period, include:

• State of the economy

• Economic Strategy or Recovery Plan

• Key / growth sectors including tourism, oil & gas and food & drink.

• Innovation

• Leadership and ambition

• Skills

• Workforce / place development

• Higher Education contribution to growth / post-16 education reform

• Youth employment

• Internationalisation

• Digital economy

Minutes for meetings have been place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICE) under 58315.