Policy Research Media Morhamburn

While back in Malaysia on holiday a few years ago, we were invited to a friend’s house for a much appreciated ‘welcome home’ dinner.

During the course of the evening, I fell into conversation with two of the older folk (my host’s father and father-in-law) who had disappeared onto the veranda for a smoke – and a few moments of quiet time away from the grandchildren.

There came the usual questions: How long are you going to be in the UK? What are you doing in Scotland? Where are you based?

The quizmaster-in-chief, ‘Datuk A,’ proceeded to inform us that as a young man studying in London, he used to regularly visit Edinburgh. ‘A great city, beautiful country,’ he observed, continuing that he used to employ Scottish managers on his oil palm plantations. ‘Encik B’ nodded, ‘Scots are renowned for being hard workers,’ he offered.

So there on the veranda, the illuminated Kuala Lumpur (KL) cityscape spread out before us, the three of sat discussing Scotland’s merits until we were discovered and ushered back inside.

Looking back, the conversation was not only an interesting discourse on the place Scotland occupied in the hearts and minds of that cosmopolitan corner of Southeast Asia – but also, given that the two old gents could casually compliment a country that had at one time colonised their own, an illustration of how far Malaysia has prospered and matured in its 50-plus years of independence.

Given the events of the past year, it’s perhaps easy to be dismissive of Scotland’s many attributes, or underestimate the respect that is still accorded to this country’s academic, engineering and financial sectors around the world. And it shouldn’t take the First Minister to remind us during each and every SNP conference of the country’s research capacity, or what Scotland’s life sciences sector is worth to the economy to realise the debt owed to Scottish scientific expertise.

Headlines may point to a Scotland that has been left metaphorically bruised by the battering the financial sector has taken over the past 12 months, but Scots are nothing if not resilient. Nor is this country the only one to have been affected by the financial downturn. And despite being left dazed, confused and perhaps even a little embarrassed, too, by the post-Megrahi release fallout, we should remember that Scots and Scotland still enjoy some support and goodwill out there in the wider world – and not just (as welcome as their opinions are) in the forms of ex-President Mandela or Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Scots tend to forget the part their forefathers played in the opening up of China and Hong Kong, or in the industrialisation of Japan. While characters such as William Kinninmond Burton remain largely unknown in their homeland, he and other figures like him have helped generate a legacy of goodwill that spans cities from Kyoto to Calcutta.

Scotland’s potential partners extend well beyond the traditional ‘Anglo-Saxon’ world:  the US, Canada and Australia. Scotland has a network of Global Scots (an idea the Irish, it would appear, seem keen to emulate) and active business leaders who, incidentally gathered here in Edinburgh on Sept 1 for a one-day Global Ambitions conference, whose experience, insight, contacts and, indeed, support should be tapped to the hilt.

Scots need to consider doing business with all nations and not just a tried and tested few. They need to take full advantage of all emerging opportunities – including the potential offered by the country’s international student populations too, for they are their countries’ future lawmakers and captains of industry.

Scotland has a fantastic legacy to tap in Asia – and that’s not just the sentiments of a couple of old KL gents.