Twenty years ago, the City of London embarked on a remarkable transformation. The far-reaching reforms that became known as the “big bang” and saw a significant change in the way shares were traded, came into effect on one particular day: October 27, 1986.

Along with the financial reforms came a series of physical changes as London’s financial sector broke out of its traditional “square mile” home, and in the process transformed the city’s skyline.

The wasteland of the east London docklands at Canary Wharf grew skyscrapers, with shiny new dealing floors, new homes for major international banks and other financial institutions.

Now, some in Glasgow believe that Scotland’s most populous city is ready for a major step forward in a way that would see the kind of improvements that have resulted from London’s “big bang”.

A blueprint for this will be set out later this month when a new 10-year economic strategy for Glasgow is launched at the State Of The City Eco nomy conference on November 21.

It comes against a backdrop of some significant improvement in the city’s economy in recent years. More than 60,000 extra jobs were created between 1995 and 2004 and the number of people in work has risen by around 40,000 in the past 10 years.

These are indeed signs of progress, but what that amounts to is halving the previous gap in the employment rate between Glasgow and the national average. At 66% in 2005, the city’s employment rate is now in the mid-range for UK post-industrial cities but it is still the lowest in Scotland.

So, progress has been made but there are still great strides to be taken. There are serious economic, social and physical challenges facing the city.

There remain questions of balance. Glasgow has now overwhelmingly a services economy with fewer than one in 10 jobs being in manufacturing or utilities, although, as the State Of The City report points out: “There are important global firms in these sectors.” Hopefully the events of the last week, with the approach for Scottish Power, will not dilute the number of jobs in the sector in Glasgow, although there is clearly a danger that a corporate “centre of power” could be lost if the utility loses its independence.

These latest developments help to underline one of the challenges that lies at the door of the Glasgow economy: the need to achieve economic and employment growth across a broader base.

The plain fact is that the city economy, as is largely the case with Scotland’s economy, lacks business-size balance. An analysis of the figures shows three-quarters of the jobs growth referred to earlier has been in large workplaces, while both the employment and the overall number of businesses has declined in the smaller business sector.

Another key challenge is achieving higher levels of productivity. Compared with its competitor cities, Glasgow’s jobs growth has tended to be in lower-skilled roles. There is little in the city in the way of specialisation in higher-value, innovative or exportable activities. Such things are the very stuff of the future and there is too little of it about in the city of Glasgow.

Thirdly, more needs to be done in the way of continuing and completing the regeneration of the physical and social fabric of the city.

As the State Of The City report says: “Glasgow has made great progress in tackling unemployment and economic inactivity. Demographic and deprivation indicators are moving in the right direction but much more remains to be done if step change is to be achieved, and the city’s full potential achieved.”

Those challenges are there and we will return next week to look at the way they are to be answered.

But there are two other factors which appear to be important. The first is that, for the first time in living memory, there now appears to be a chance of real co-operation between the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh on economic affairs.

The appointment of a steering group and now a co-ordinator, Laura Gordon, to move this forward is a welcome change from the bad old days of sniping between the leadership of the two cities that define Scotland’s central belt.

The other factor is the changing political will and improved relationships at all levels within the city. The leadership of Glasgow City Council, under Steven Purcell, and of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, previously under Ron Culley and now under Stuart Patrick, are working together for the benefit of the city across a wide range of areas.

And the Scottish Executive, working with those bodies, has thrown its weight behind the bid to attract the Commonwealth Games to the city in 2014.

There is much, then, that is positive, but there is one big question mark hanging in the air.

The State Of The City conference is a half-day event once a year and is an absolutely key one for all those interested in the economy of Glasgow.

Last year, one MSP registered for the event but was not actually spotted in attendance.

This year, we can only hope that the turnout is significantly improved. Glasgow has nine MSPs; surely the majority of those should be present on the day.

Questions should be asked of those who do not have a very good reason for being absent. After all, the city’s voters can, in just six months’ time, answer those questions for themselves at the ballot box.

A failure to show up would be yet another blow to the reputation of the Scottish parliament.