The company behind plans for a new marine technology park near Clydebank says "now is the time to set a new course for the Clyde."

Once complete, the Scottish Marine Technology Park, on the site of the former Carless oil refinery on the riverbank at Old Kilpatrick, will include several large fabrication facilities, room for a large number of smaller suppliers and a deep-water jetty with a 1,100-tonne ship hoist – the largest of its kind in Europe.

Glasgow-based Malin Group, in a white paper entitled Delivering a Marine Technology Hub for Scotland, argues for a shipbuilding and marine industries revival with public sector procurement policies as the starting point.

The report states the view has "persisted for too long" that civil shipbuilding on the Clyde was uncompetitive, under-invested in and generally finished without the life support of occasional state aid – resulting in "insufficient attention being paid to opportunities which still existed".

It continues: "The assumption that the banks of a river which once provided thousands of skilled jobs, building and maintaining ships, are now only useful for the construction of apartment blocks went unchallenged."

"Now is the time to set a new course for the Clyde and the Scottish supply chain more generally."

The report was published as the Malin Group steps up its plans for the SMTP, following the recent award of £1,980,000 funding from the Scottish Government’s Clyde Mission, enabling progression to stage two in its development.