Final preparations were today being made for the US:NI investment conference
which takes place in Belfast later this week.
Officials from the Department of Enterprise and Invest NI were working over
the Bank Holiday weekend to ensure that everything is in place for the
arrival of the VIP guests on Wednesday.
More than 100 senior executives from over 80 companies are set to attend the
conference, which runs until lunchtime on Friday.
The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, will be
present on Thursday afternoon when the delegates will be at Parliament
Buildings.
But the main business session will take place on Thursday morning at the
BBC’s Blackstaff Studio in Great Victoria Street.
Economy Minister Nigel Dodds said: “This conference is a unique
opportunity to showcase Northern Ireland to corporate America and show them
that we are very much open for business.
“Our visitors will see at first hand the greater stability and
optimism for the future, since the restoration of devolution.
“We will demonstrate the expertise and skills of our workforce, the
first-class research base which exists in our universities and the quality
infrastructure base which underpins our support for enterprise.”
Helping to sell Northern Ireland as an investment location will be
representatives of a number of American companies which have already located
here, who will be addressing delegates at Blackstaff Studio.
They include Mike Zafirovski from Nortel, Jim Foster from Citi, John
Spangler from Seagate, Bill Rohner from Caterpillar, Cathy Brune from
Allstate Insurance and Stuart McGuigan of Liberty Mutual.
Speaking at Parliament Buildings, meanwhile, will be Mayor Michael Bloomberg
from New York and Sir Anthony O’Reilly, CEO of Independent News &
Media, owners of the Belfast Telegraph.
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