Nicola Sturgeon has moved to bury the hatchet with Britain’s biggest business lobby group after a bitter constitutional row sullied their relationship.
The SNP and CBI were at odds during last year’s independence referendum campaign after the organisation actively backed the Union.
But peace was declared after the First Minister gave the keynote speech at the CBI Scotland annual dinner on Thursday and outlined her vision for a “partnership for productivity”.
She said: “We want to build a partnership for productivity with businesses, the third sector, the wider public sector and trade unions.
“We are determined to focus on the four pillars of our economic strategy: investment in people and infrastructure, innovation, internationalisation and inclusive growth.
“Small and medium-sized businesses are not only the backbone of the Scottish economy, but are essential to delivering our ambition for Scotland to become the real Northern powerhouse, the UK location of choice for businesses looking to locate, expand or invest.”
When Prime Minister David Cameron gave the same address a year ago, a bitter row was under way over the CBI’s stance, which saw it lose members and have its credibility questioned by SNP MSPs at Holyrood.
But Ms Sturgeon’s language was friendly last night, even making a joke about refusing to attend previous gatherings, as she delivered the address to around 570 business leaders.
And a full complement of Scottish Government officials, including Deputy First Minister John Swinney, was present at the Glasgow Hilton event.
Tickets encouraging people to tweet proceedings were emblazoned #CBAye.
In his first speech since becoming CBI president in July, Paul Drechsler called on business to invest in training young people to close the skills gap between rich and poor children.
He said: “We quite literally can’t afford for our children to be left behind in the global skills race.”
Mr Drechsler added: “We need more firms including the ones here in this room to step up and lead the way in tackling skills shortages.”