Not exactly capturing the good news with their headline and keeping the story off the headline for a few jags, BBC Scotland does inform us:

Scotland’s appeal to foreign investors bucked the sharp downward trend during the Covid crisis last year, according to an annual survey by accountancy and consultancy firm EY. The number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects that came to Scotland last year was up from 101 to 107. That 6% rise compared with a 12% drop for the UK as a whole, to 975 projects. Much of that was from the reduction in digital technology going to London. Europe’s total FDI haul was down 13%. While London was the city that continued to attract the biggest number of UK projects – down from 48% to 39% of the UK total – Edinburgh knocked Manchester into second place with 36 projects.

The report astonishingly and unconvincingly tries to deny the obvious Brexit factor in the above with:

The UK figures run counter to downbeat assessments of Britain’s appeal to international investors following Brexit.

Didn’t they watch the Eurovision Song Contest?

Does Scotland’s relative success tell us that investors know we’re different and have plans to stay in the EU?

Well, actually, to be fair, BBC Scotland do allow us this:

The Scottish figures also suggest the prospect of another independence referendum is not a significant discouragement to foreign investors. Scotland has consistently outperformed other parts of the UK in this annual survey, with the exception of London.

And Douglas Fraser offers this interesting analysis:

For Scotland to compete, it is not tax but its workers’ skills that are most often the differentiating factor. Universities are vital to this, producing graduates who stay in Scotland because its cities offer clusters of attractive technology start-ups and innovation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-57374987