SCOTTISH Development International declared it had seen no sign of the heightened independence debate affecting inward investment, as it yesterday revealed a 10 per cent rise in the number of jobs secured through such projects.

The taxpayer-backed inward investment agency said yesterday that its “promotion of Scotland as a place to do business” had secured 7,839 jobs in the year to March from projects brought by companies from the rest of the UK and overseas.

SDI noted the US remained the biggest source of inward investment by job numbers in this context, at 2,688, followed by England, on 1,769, and Germany, on 561. In the prior 12 months, 2,919 jobs were secured with projects attracted from the US with the help of SDI. England was the source of 1,444 jobs from such projects, with 704 from Germany.

By number of projects, as opposed to job numbers, SDI noted Norway was the third-biggest source of inward investment for Scotland in the year to March.

SDI highlighted a surge in the number of such inward investment projects attracted in the year to March, to 139. In the previous 12 months, 96 such projects were secured. It underlined its focus on securing research and development, and technology, software and life sciences projects.

Overseas companies investing in Scotland in the year to March included Singapore-based clinical service and research group Clinnovate, Chinese mobile games giant Skymoons, US marketing and sales solution provider Televerde, San Diego-based diabetes management specialist Dexcom, and Chinese power company Red Rock.

SDI published the inward investment figures as Australian financial services group Computershare announced it had secured £2 million of funding from Scottish Enterprise to create 300 jobs at a new technology centre of excellence in Edinburgh.

Asked about talk that constitutional uncertainty was affecting inward investment in Scotland, amid the renewed independence debate, and whether there was any sign of this from the 2016/17 figures, SDI operations director Neil Francis replied: “No, would be the rounded answer from that.

“I think last year, the 10 per cent increase has been, from our perspective, a very good result.”

Mr Francis noted this rise in jobs from inward investment projects had been achieved against a backdrop of heightened global uncertainty, citing the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.

He said: “I was out at San Diego last week at a life sciences conference, and they had a very interesting debate on the emerging trade and investment policies of the US administration.”

Flagging the view of some software and technology companies in California, Mr Francis added: “Doing some business meetings later in the week in San Jose, US-owned companies are keeping a very close eye on some of those policies coming out of the Trump administration in terms of what it means for their global footprint.”

He declared there was a “huge amount of global uncertainty”.

However, Mr Francis voiced a belief that the areas on which SDI was choosing to focus more strongly were less influenced by some of the global uncertainties.

He added: “We are very strongly focused on R&D and higher value-type projects. We have the skills and the talent and the connections, through our academic base.”

Mr Francis noted the global uncertainty had built during the year to March, but he was upbeat about the outlook for inward investment in Scotland.

He said: “The acid test will be through the coming year – how things develop. What I would say is our pipeline of opportunities is stronger than it was this time last year. The reaction we are getting in the main from investors is very positive.”

Mr Francis also highlighted opportunities for Scotland in securing technology-related projects from financial and business services sector companies.

He cited US investment bank JP Morgan’s established software development operations in Glasgow as an example of the type of project Scotland could win from this sector.

And he said the expertise built up by Edinburgh in the technology sector in the last decade was gaining traction internationally.

Mr Francis also flagged opportunities for Scotland in the growing “big data” arena.