“We are very keen to understand how we can engage with the opportunity in India and to build better business relations”
Please share with us some basic information about what is SDI?
SDI is Scottish Development International, we are an agency and our basic objective is to encourage inward investments in Scotland as well as to link Scottish businesses with the rest of the world.
Do you have an India strategy?
We are very keen to understand how we can engage with the opportunity in India to build better business relations. We have a representative in New Delhi and his specific role at the moment is talking to Indian companies to understand their needs and how we can improve the links.
Could you please share some information about the gaming scenario in Scotland?
We reckon we have got around between 500 to 600 talent that is working actively in the game development space out here. We have got a couple of really big ones and then we have got a whole cluster of small companies that have been successful in the new emerging market places and with newer platforms such as mobile, online, nex gen console games etc.
The main thing is that the talent pool we have got is diverse and is not restricted to programmers. We have artists, musicians, writers, sound engineers, core creative people whose inputs take the whole proposition higher up the value chain.
Any Indian or Indian associated companies setting up base in Scotland?
Not in this sector currently. We are actively talking to certain Indian companies across the whole gamut of technology because certainly India has got great strengths in this space and we are actively talking to them how we could work together to build a bridge where Scotland benefits and India benefits. The skill base that both the countries have are complementary, at the moment we are really good more in the designing and pre production aspect of it , India’s got different sets of skills , so we re looking on how to match those skills so that there is a mutual benefit..
Are you also looking for Indian companies to set up base in Scotland or are you lookin at outsourcing?
Both ways
Any Asian players that have opened facility or shifted base to Scotland?
The Scottish games industry at the moment is a self generated. We know we have got the skills, we know we have got the capabilities. We are keen to understand how we can put them together. And once again we are talking not only about game developers but other players from across the chain that are important to the game development ecosystem. Like in hi-tech areas like electronic chip design. We can talk about companies like NCR, Exom, there’s a whole range of companies that have invested in Scotland.
What sort of support are you offering if Indian companies were to come to Scotland? Are there funds etc?
As an agency we provide help to them and we make sure their arrival in Scotland is as easy as possible, depending on the nature of the investments potentially yes there could be government grants to encourage them, but as SDI, I would like to share that the benefit of working in Scotland is the talent pool and diverse skillsets and capabilities which makes it attractive. We go for skills and capabilities not subsidies, skills are the key thing .In certain areas we can offer incentives we have got a scheme which we call R&D plus where we can offer funds to cover the costs incurred for Research & Development. Now developing a game would not be regarded R&D, that is commercial but maybe if you had got a piece of middle ware, which was being researched and developed and which could be a potential technological invention that could speed up the game development process or add to it in any dimension, then we could potentially do something for it in terms of grants etc.
Any message you would like to give to Indian companies?
You will be very welcomed in Scotland, we are very keen to build and strengthen bridges between India and Scotland, we certainly believe there are complementary skills between India and Scotland they will be welcome here.