Northern Ireland could become '21st century economic success story'

Local & National

Privatisation of the Port of Belfast was part of Sir David Verney's brief

Thursday, May 01, 2008

By Robin Morton

Northern Ireland has the potential to be a "21st century economic success story", Sir David Varney has proclaimed.

Sir David was speaking after the publication of his 100-page report on the competitiveness of the province's economy, in which he made a series of recommendations.

He said: "My findings suggest that Northern Ireland has a number of substantial competitive advantages and is already a very good place to do business with a young and skilled workforce.

"The Northern Ireland Executive has already made excellent progress, putting economic development at the heart of its programme, and setting out a range of programmes to create a vibrant and prosperous economy.

"This commitment to economic growth is shared by political parties, the public and private sectors and the Irish and UK Governments."

Sir David said the next stage for Northern Ireland should be the "rapid and effective" implementation of the Executive's economic strategy and the "widening and deepening" of existing reform.

He went on: "My recommendations for the Northern Ireland Executive and the UK Government are intended to assist the Executive and the UK Government, supported by the Irish government, in delivering their central economic objectives for Northern Ireland."

Sir David said next week's US:NI investment conference would be an important staging post in Northern Ireland's transformation.

In its commentary, the Treasury said that Sir David's review had identified a number of core strengths that made Northern Ireland a good place to do business and attractive to a wide range of investors.

A spokesman added: "These strengths include a young population, an excellent education system, macro-economic stability, strong transport links with the rest of the UK, Ireland and Europe and ambitious plans for infrastructure investment.

"These strengths — alongside a range of investment incentives — have already attracted notable inward investment, and seen some of the strongest growth in output of any UK region."

But the Treasury noted that the review sounded a warning that globalisation will bring a number of challenges to the Northern Ireland economy in the years ahead.

The spokesman said: "To succeed in the face of this growing competition, Northern Ireland will need to continue to raise its relatively low productivity and employment rates and reduce the number of low-skilled workers in the economy."

Sir David found that the Northern Ireland Executive has responded well to many of these challenges, and welcomed the priority given to the economy in Northern Ireland's Programme for Government and the strategies developed to support economic development.

It concludes that the Executive should now focus on the rapid and effective implementation of those strategies.