Viewpoint: Now, we are open for business

Opinion

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Editor: Martin Lindsay

Brown pledges more for big projects

Friday, May 09, 2008

Today the top US executives who have come to Northern Ireland for the investment conference are getting a first hand look at the business infrastructure in the province.

They will see the sectors which most interest them from a potential investment perspective as part of their looking and learning exercise.

Already there has been significant investment gains from the conference. The New York Stock Exchange Euronext firm is to create 75 jobs at its local subsidiary, Wombat; plane-makers Bombardier is to invest £70m in Belfast to build fuselages for its regional jets; internet payment company CyberSource is to recruit 56 graduates for its new software R&D centre in Belfast and business and financial news provider Bloomberg is to open a Northern Ireland bureau.

These are exactly the sort of investments which Northern Ireland craves, creating well paid jobs in global industries. While the actual number of jobs is relatively small, they send out a signal to other investors that Northern Ireland is in business for high value investments. The region cannot compete on costs alone and has to demonstrate that it can compete at a much higher level in the knowledge-based economy.

That is a signal which the US executives cannot fail to notice and the hope is that they will return to their companies and consider Northern Ireland as a destination of choice for their future investments.

This investment conference is not about quick fixes for the local economy. It is about creating sustainable jobs and sustainable interest in the region. The full benefits of the conference may not be realised for years.

But it is a one-off opportunity to sell Northern Ireland. It is difficult to imagine any other region of the UK which could have attracted such a stellar cast of characters.

The President of the United States, George W Bush, and the President of the European Union, Jose Manuel Barosso, both sent video messages of support. The Prime Ministers of the UK and the Repub lic, Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen, both attended in person as did more than 100 of America's corporate elite.

These are all people with huge, pressing demands on their time and attention, and for them to demonstrate personal interest in Northern Ireland's economic future is astonishing.

For their part, Executive ministers and the local business community combined to show the province in its best light and to put out the message that Northern Ireland is open for business, not just, as in the past, holding out a begging bowl.

Sir Anthony O'Reilly, chief executive of Independent News & Media, owners of this newspaper, who announced a further £7m investment in Newry, was another to extol the benefits of doing business in Northern Ireland.

He took the opportunity during the conference to call for a harmonisation of corporation tax rates on both sides of the border which could increase the attractiveness of Northern Ireland to international investors, but Gordon Brown has set his face against such an initiative. Nevertheless, the province has much going for it and has made its case as never before. Now it is over to the boardrooms.