US Ambassadors visit North

The US Ambassadors to London and Dublin were in the North today leading a business delegation on a two-day fact finding missing.

The visit comes ahead of a planned investment conference proposed for the province for next Spring .

It is the first in a series announced by President’s George Bush’s special envoy on Northern Ireland, Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, to raise the profile of the conference which will seek to encourage more US companies to set up in, or do business with, the province.

Minister for the Economy Nigel Dodds welcomed the two ambassadors saying: “This visit gives us a great opportunity to showcase Northern Ireland.”

Speaking at Parliament Buildings last night, he told Robert Holmes Tuttle, Ambassador to the UK, and his Dublin counterpart, Ambassador Thomas C Foley, that increased levels of inward investment in high value, knowledge-based sectors would contribute to generating the growth and productivity improvements which would increase the economic prosperity of Northern Ireland.

He said: “Northern Ireland offers a welcome region where overseas investors will find a good supply of skills from a well-educated workforce, a strong infrastructure and third-level institutions where the commercial exploitation of R&D and innovation lie at the heart of the academic and skills agenda.”

The North, he said, had hi-tech expertise, industrial ingenuity and a great lifestyle, was open for business and had a government that was deeply committed to working with business for business.