Northern Ireland seeks to woo investors

Northern Ireland seeks to woo investors
By Jonathan Saul Reuters - Tuesday, May 6 01:13 am

BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Ireland holds a major investment conference for U.S. firms this week as it seeks to attract foreign businesses to the province.

A year after Catholic and Protestant political foes put aside decades of hostility and agreed to share power in a regional government, attention is focused on opening the economy and luring foreign funds, especially in financial services.

Following are excerpts from an interview with Northern Ireland's Economy Minister Nigel Dodds.

Q: How has Northern Ireland's economy changed, particularly since the Good Friday (1998 peace) Agreement?

A: Over that period of time, we have seen a big drop in terms of the people who are unemployed. We still have issues in terms of the relatively small size of the private sector compared to the public sector.

Q: Has there been a peace dividend?

A: There is no doubt that Northern Ireland is now seen as being open for business. I think the major impediment to people considering Northern Ireland was first and foremost peoples' fears about security and stability.

I think we have seen a realisation now that with the tailing off of violence and its end, and with the creation of a stable, devolved administration back in May last year, people now see a major opportunity.

Q: Are you primarily targeting U.S. investment?

A: We are targeting investment wherever the opportunities arise in those sectors that we are particularly interested in and believe we can offer a viable proposition.

I think, however, we have a great window of opportunity as far as the States is concerned. It is by far ... our biggest source of foreign direct investment anyway.

Doors are opening to us that many other regions would give their right arm to have that opportunity.

Q: With the UK government opposing attempts to lower corporation tax here, are you working on some other package of incentives?

A: The Executive here in Northern Ireland took a very strong view ... that we should aim to get corporation tax reduced because we do share a land frontier with our competitor to the south which does have a 12.5 percent corporation tax rate.

We are aware this would be a major help to us in terms of attracting certain types of FDI (foreign direct investment) which are particularly interested in profit.

Having said that we have been very successful in terms of attracting significant amounts of foreign direct investment already. There is investment coming in from India, from America, from Europe.

Q: What are you trying to achieve with the investor conference?

A: We are basically getting people to come over to Northern Ireland and see first-hand what we have to offer.

For Americans, in particular, the fact that there is this common language, there is a cultural compatibility, we are close to London, we are close to Europe but at the same time a relatively low-cost operating environment compared to those centres.

So all of that added together as a package is very attractive for a lot of businesses in America as near shore solutions for their businesses.

Q: How have the global credit crisis and a UK slowdown impacted on Northern Ireland's economy?

A: We are not immune. No region is immune from the global economic environment and we are seeing in terms of energy prices, oil prices, gas, wholesale prices all of that is having an impact on business and on domestic consumers.

In the medium term we have every reason to be very, very optimistic about the future in Northern Ireland because in those areas that we are seeking investment in, they will stand the test of time because they are based on knowledge, they are based on skills rather than simply competing on a low cost basis with other regions which will be able outperform us.