Scottish electronics worth £4Bn

According to Scotsman.com the Scottish electronics industry is despite all the closures and lay-offs worth about £4Bn. "Scottish electronics is not dead or dying", Peter Hughes, chief executive at manufacturing trade group Scottish Engineering, told Scotsman.com. During the last years many companies have moved out their manufacturing from Scotland. THe list below is published by Scotsman.com Business. Closures: VIASYSTEMS - 1998. US electronics group closes Selkirk and Galashiels facilities with the loss of more than 1000 jobs. Production moved to China. MOTOROLA - 2001. Closed Bathgate plant assembling mobiles with loss of 3100 jobs. NEC - 2001. Pays off 600 staff at Livingston memory chip factory. SOLECTRON - 2001. The US electronics company shed 380 jobs with another 150 going at its Smart Modular Technologies subsidiary. NEC - 2002. Realises factory can't be saved and is closed with loss of further 660 jobs. Production switched to China. COMPAQ - 2002. Computer maker sheds 630 workers at its plant in Erskine, after merger with Hewlett-Packard. Work shifted to Poland. MOTOROLA - 2003. 300 jobs were lost when the electronics group shut its South Queensferry plant. CHUNGHWA - 2003. Shut its Mossend factory, after receiving £33m of taxpayers' cash to set up. Planned to employ 2000 people but only had 800 staff at peak. Production switched to China. INVETEC - 2006. Server maker closes Hillington factory with loss of 370 jobs. Work goes to the Czech Republic. SANMINA-SCI - 2006. Computer firm axes Greenock plant with loss of 300 jobs. Manufacturing switches to eastern Europe and China. LEXMARK - 2006. 730 redundancies announced with closure of Rosyth printer-making facility. Some production transferred to Mexico. "Small companies should be given more help as they are the backbone of the economy but they do tend to get good backing from the venture capitalists. I recognise that companies like Wolfson are helping the Scottish economy, not just from their business, but also from their growing profile", Sandy Paton, a business and economic consultant with Edinburgh-based A&J Paton Consultants told Scotsman.com.