LIZ CAMERON

Last week’s announcement of direct flights from Edinburgh to Beijing could be the biggest export opportunity for Scotland since the onset of the ecommerce revolution.

An air bridge to China from a Scottish airport has been the Holy Grail of the “global connections” strategy for a decade or more, and subject of commercial negotiation since 2012. Edinburgh Airport’s securing of four flights a week via Hainan Airlines from the capital (two of them direct) is a potential game-changer for Scottish-Chinese trade, and a triumph for Edinburgh’s team, led by airport chief executive Gordon Dewar and chairman Sir John Elvidge.

Thanks to their diplomatic skill and persistence, supported by the dynamic Chinese Consul General to Scotland Mr Pan Xinchun, and the wider business community, Scotland can celebrate potential gains in manufactured exports, finance, tourism and education now that the physical and mental distance between Scots traders and the vast Chinese market has shortened.

If the route takes off, a direct link to Glasgow Airport cannot be far behind, perhaps with another Chinese megalopolis. The Chambers Network will continue to press for this outcome along with other long-haul routes, while doing what it can to promote the current China opportunity to members and non-members alike.

The first scheduled Edinburgh-Beijing flight is in June, shortly after SCC’s largest ever trade mission, to Shandong Province next month. Our hope is that deals secured on our upcoming visit to Shandong Province will help fill seats both-ways for years to come.

If they are not already, Scottish tourism and high-end retail businesses should be getting themselves China ready, and there is plenty of good advice available on how to do this from sources such as the China Britain Business Council and Visit Scotland. Clearly the Chinese want to come here (48,000 trips in 2016 according to Visit Scotland), so there is a strong base for high growth.

There is a solid basis for this bullishness. Manchester Airport, which secured a 4 times-weekly Hainan Airways flight in 2016, facilitated by Xi Jinping’s visit there the previous year, estimates that it boosted north of England exports to China to more than £200m a month (By comparison Scotland sells less than £600m a year there). Chinese tourists heading to the UK are now more likely to start in Manchester, splashing out more than £138m in 2016, double what they spent in the year before the route launched.

Edinburgh can now equally be seen as a front door to the UK, with all the potential benefits that will bring. Scottish business has just been handed the best kind of challenge. Let’s see what we can make of it.

Liz Cameron is chief executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce. SCC's Trade Mission: China takes place between April 14 and 21.