Transforming development agencies into one body

Responsive, energetic, outward looking and supportive. These are the four characteristics, which are going to shape economic development in Northern Ireland in the future, according to Prof Fabian Monds.

The emeritus Professor of Information Systems at the University of Ulster is the shadow chairman of a new agency, which is going to transform the current economic development agencies into one integrated body for the first time in Northern Ireland.

Invest Northern Ireland will have a staff of more than 600 and a budget in excess of £200 million sterling (€325 million).

According to Prof Monds, Invest Northern Ireland has everything to play for, even though the world economy is in free fall.

"It is a difficult time to be restructuring but it is probably the right time because everybody accepts the cyclical nature of the world economy, we are in a downward slope at the moment but there will be an upswing.

"It is very important that we move as quickly as possible to be ready for the upswing. My own expectation is that the creation of a single agency and the bringing together of very considerable talents and resources will generate synergies and produce performance improvements," he said.

Prof Monds wants every company and every potential investor in Northern Ireland to be a stakeholder in Invest Northern Ireland.

"Our ambition is to see an economy in Northern Ireland which is characterised by companies with roots, globally competitive, in partnership with higher and further education - using our best resource - the human resource.

"Invest Northern Ireland is not as important as the business it is going to support, from the people who work in those businesses to their customers, who will in effect be the measure of Invest Northern Ireland's success.

"I see it as an engine that will build on the strength and capabilities of the business structure and our local communities," Prof Monds said.

A founding partner of two companies in the North, Lisburn-based Medical and Scientific Computer Services and WesternConnect, which is based in Derry, he claims he is not simply, an academic but has been involved in economic development throughout his career.

A softly spoken, unassuming figure, he has also been chairman of a key economic development agency and an important Government initiative in the North. It was his track record in the worlds of academia and business that convinced him to apply for the job of shadow chairman of Invest Northern Ireland.

"My interest over many years has been in the context of economic development and innovation and the ways in which higher education and more generally knowledge and experience can be deployed where ever they are in society, to making a difference in terms of economic opportunities and jobs.

"Having been chairman of the Information Age Initiative and chairman of the Industrial Research and Technology Unit, when the proposition of one agency was put forward and people were invited to apply I felt I should throw my hat in the ring," Prof Monds said.

It is still early days for the new shadow board which is made up of seven of the North's key business and industrial leaders; last week it held its first board meeting.

But Prof Monds said every member of the new body was fully aware of the challenges facing it. "We in Northern Ireland have our own particular set of challenges and any attempts to bring together four elements, from four different backgrounds and structures into a single integrated structure is going to have very practical challenges," he said.

Its immediate priority was to appoint a chief executive and begin work on its corporate plan.