Business chiefs in economy plea to Blair

Northern business leaders told Tony Blair today that economic measures were needed to back the hopes for political progress.

The British Prime Minister and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern met leaders of the business community in Armagh for discussions after announcing their blueprint for restoring devolution.

Speaking afterwards, Lord Dilgit Rana, successful hotelier and chairman of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said they told Mr Blair economic issues were just as important as political ones.

Failing to act now to improve the economy could lead to the North becoming a backwater as India, China and other developing countries forged ahead, said Lord Rana.

“There is big global change out there and if we don’t put our house in order, political parties as well as the business community, we are going to be left behind. That is the big threat,” he said.

Lord Rana said the Northern economy had, over the last few years, done well, but there were dangers ahead.

“We need to be working at a much faster pace. To achieve that we need some economic measures like tax harmonisation and some other sort of incentives for bigger investment by foreign companies as well as Northern Ireland companies.

“Unless we achieve that, we’re going to have problems,” he said.

The hotelier said that Secretary of State Peter Hain had been saying the Northern economy was unsustainable.

“We are saying ‘Let’s make it sustainable, let’s take the economic measures which are needed.’

“The business community are all united on that and we had a very good meeting with the Prime Minister and he took the message from us.”

Declan Billington, chairman of the CBI in the North, said the message he had pressed home was that it was very important in the short term that any restoration of the Assembly be underpinned with economic viability.

He painted a vision of “a future of jobs for everyone and where we have a chance to raise the children out of poverty into a place of opportunity”.

Mr Blair, he said, was very responsive to the principle and recognised there was a strong need.

The two Prime Ministers also had a brief private meeting with Northern church leaders, none of whom made any comment after the discussions.