Investment in improving road and rail infrastructure in the west of Scotland and across the rest of the country is at record levels, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney said yesterday.

And infrastructure projects like the M74 Completion which are acting as a catalyst for urban regeneration and new development, as well as safeguarding jobs and creating new job opportunities, will provide the 'fast efficient transport links that businesses need to thrive'.

Speaking at BOC in Cambuslang, an industrial gas producer and supplier whose business has relocated to take advantage of the benefits the new M74 Completion, Mr Swinney said: "The Scottish Government is investing record sums in road and rail across Scotland which is supporting economic growth and helping accelerate recovery.

"Infrastructure projects like the M74 Completion are also encouraging businesses to invest and expand their operations here. Businesses like BOC have seen the benefits to their operations being located near the new motorway, helping them get their products to customers quicker, in turn enhancing their competitiveness and creating further expansion and job creation opportunities for them.

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"In addition, increasing accessibility to priority regeneration areas like the Clyde Gateway is releasing the development potential of those areas, bringing a further boost to Scotland's economy. New developments directly linked to the M74 Completion currently under way or which have planning permission, are expected to create and support some 3000 jobs."

BOC - a major industrial gas supplier to around 18,000 customers in Scotland - has benefited from the support it received to relocate to a new site to make way for the M74 Completion scheme. The company, which was able to safeguard 100 jobs in doing so, is set to benefit from better connections to its markets.

Nathan Palmer, Sales Director at BOC said: "For a business like ours, which supplies goods and services to just about every market sector in Scotland, good transport links like the new M74 extension are vital. Our customers, from the largest multinational to the smallest self-employed contractor, expect us to supply the right products on time.

"Our state-of-the-art site here in Glasgow gives us the means to create the required products but we also need an effective road system to deliver it. We are looking forward to the completion of the M74 project and the benefits that will bring us."

Mr Swinney also took the opportunity to visit the M74 Completion site to see for himself some of the major construction work under way to build a new overbridge at Rutherglen train station. The substructure works have been completed with major lifting operations having started in the last few days to lift 16 girders into place which will support the bridge structure.

The M74 'Missing Link' is scheduled for completion next year.

(GK)