Joint effort to tackle economy

The group held their first meeting in October

Leaders from government, business and unions have attended a summit aimed at co-ordinating their response to the economic crisis.

SNP First Minister Alex Salmond and Labour's Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy met CBI Scotland and the STUC.

Iain MacMillan, director of CBI Scotland, which hosted the talks, said it had been a "good discussion".

Grahame Smith of the STUC said he had been pressing for new ways of stemming the tide of redundancies.

Willing to talk

"We were particularly keen to ask for measures that help keep people in work, for example, where employers and unions are talking about going to short-term working," he said.

"If there are interventions that can support that process that can help people stay in work, perhaps through wage subsidies or enhanced training.

"The Scottish Government has indicated a willingness to talk to us about that."

Mr McMillan said; "This was a very useful and constructive meeting, and is part of an ongoing dialogue with both administrations and the STUC about what more can be done to support businesses and jobs at this difficult time for the economy.

"For our part, CBI Scotland put forward a number of practical suggestions to aid firms' cash flow, and to help firms win new business and keep costs down."

He said Mr Salmond and Mr Murphy both committed to study the suggestions.

We have agreed to meet on a more regular basis and I look forward to progressing more practical ideas Alex Salmond First minister

Mr Murphy told BBC Scotland: "We agreed better ways of exchanging economic information, we agreed more regular meetings, we agreed to try to see how better we could get access to credit for small businesses from the banks and to see what more we could do to support lowly-paid workers."

Mr Salmond said all sides at the meeting were unanimous in wanting to see maximum employment and a strong recovery from the downturn.

And he cited measures already taken by his administration, including paying 93% of its invoices within 10 days.

"We have agreed to meet on a more regular basis and I look forward to progressing more practical ideas, such as the apprenticeship scheme, to help Scotland work through the recession," he said.

"There will be substantial disagreements between the Scottish and UK Governments, for example we do not agree with the threatened cuts of �500m in next year's budget.

"However, this does not mean we cannot work positively and constructively on other measures to help Scotland's economy recover in the meantime."

The group's first meeting was in Edinburgh in October.

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