NI experience can help Middle East, says conference

Northern Ireland’s experience in emerging from conflict could be a model for the Middle East, an international conference being held in Belfast will hear this week.

The two day gathering is being hosted by the University of Ulster, in association with the Northern Ireland/Middle East Connection – a private sector initiative created by a group of US entrepreneurs led by software pioneer Dr John Cullinane.

It brings to Belfast Middle-Eastern policy makers and business leaders to gain first hand insight into how economic regeneration and the peace process have transformed Northern Ireland.

Over 100 delegates from Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon as well as the US and Ireland will hear from local politicians, community leaders and academics how Northern Ireland has positive lessons for the Middle East.

Key areas will be the importance of economic regeneration, the role of women in building peace and the powering of economic development through grass-roots community involvement.

Professor Gerry McKenna, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster, said today: “Northern Ireland is not yet a post-conflict society: it is a society emerging from conflict, one in transition.

“Nevertheless our story already has a moral to it, one that we hope will resonate in other places of conflict such as the Middle East“.

He said that while the North should be modest about its progress it should not be afraid to stand up and offer it as “a symbol of hope to people who are currently in the depths of despair which marked our own community less than a decade ago“.

What had been achieved in Northern Ireland was to take the first tentative steps towards overcoming historic divisions, suspicions and distrust, said the professor.

But even the beginnings of a social and political consensus based on respect for cultural diversity and tolerance of different cultural values was, he hoped, “a light to the rest of the world”.

The progress achieved demonstrated that no matter how entrenched the attitudes or polarised the views, the search for a common future should never be given up, he added.

Dr Cullinane, will present a draft plan proposing 20,000 contact centre jobs in the Middle East as a first step in the economic regeneration of the region.

“Jobs can lead to community support for new, enlightened approaches to problem-solving,” he said.

Professor Gillian Robinson, co-ordinator of the conference which opens tomorrow, said the Ulster University had been at the forefront of international research into conflict resolution in divided societies.

“We are now moving to make available our global experience in conflict resolution to further the cause of peace and economic development in the Middle East,” she added.