North 'needs export-led economy'

The North's future prosperity hangs on its ability to create and sustain a high value-added and internationally competitive export-led economy, the chairman of the province’s economic development agency said today.

As Invest Northern Ireland announced its preliminary results for the last financial year – the best in its five year history – Stephen Kingon said the North could no longer sell itself as a low-cost manufacturing location.

The dramatic growth of China, India and the EU’s new members now set the benchmark by which low-cost locations were being measured, he said.

The North was now facing some of the greatest challenges seen in the past two generations, he said, and there was a need for partnership between academics, politicians and business to drive economic development forward.

Mr Kingon said: “Northern Ireland’s future prosperity hangs on our ability to create and sustain a high value-added, internationally competitive, export-led economy.”

Economic regeneration on that scale demanded a new vision of a better future and bold and determined strategies to win it, he said, just days before devolution is restored and local politicians take the helm.

“To realise that future we must create world-class research in our universities, innovation and process excellence in our companies, export growth as the measure of our performance and new foreign direct investment as the badge of our success,” added Mr Kingon.

Invest NI’s chief executive Leslie Morrison said business needed to do more to help create the raw material it will need for an expanding workforce in the years ahead.

“I think more business people should take the time to talk to school children about what it is like to be in business.

“I think concrete evidence from people doing the job would be helpful. I think not enough people are picking up the cudgels as they should .”

Mr Morrison said too few pupils were going on to study the maths, physics and chemistry that were needed if there was to be a growing economy.

Right across the world there was a problem with children picking less demanding, non technical subjects to study – it was not as bad in the North as some other places, he said, and warned it was not happening at all in China and India.

Mr Kingon added: “We need to move up the value chain and we need people with the right skills.

“One third of graduates need to be repackaged with the right technical skills and made fit for purpose – that is where the job opportunities are.”

During 2006/07 Invest NI supported £500m (€734m) of new investment commitments and backed an overseas investment project every nine working days.

Mr Morrison said that despite increasingly stiff competition for foreign direct investment, the last year had been their most successful since they were created in 2002.

A total of 28 new overseas-owned projects were secured and were expected to create 3,497 new jobs and safeguard another 200.

“Of these 28 projects, 17 were first-time internationally mobile investments that will promote 2,559 new jobs. These alone represent a planned investment of nearly £128 million, including Invest NI assistance of some £27m (€39.6m),” said Mr Morrison.