IDB delegation woos America

Northern Ireland Assembly members, with IDB representatives, are in Boston today for the official announcement by a technology company of its plans to establish a Northern Irish base.

The delegation's tour of 11 cities is aimed at wooing high technology and bio-medical companies to the North. It includes the IDB chairman, Dr Alan Gillespie, Mr David Trimble, First Minister, and Mr Seamus Mallon, Deputy First Minister, of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and Mr Adam Ingram, Economy Minister for Northern Ireland.

Earlier, more than 100 business people from a range of New York corporations attended the first of the IDB's investment roadshows in the Plaza Hotel, in Manhattan, New York. At a breakfast briefing, they were told of the industrial opportunities available in Northern Ireland, and about the experiences of the US companies which have already set up in the region.

The meeting was addressed by Mr Trimble, Mr Mallon and Mr Patrick Mulloy, Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the US administration. Other speakers included the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Dr Mo Mowlam, and the IDB chairman, Dr Gillespie.

Mr Mulloy said that the European Union was a massively important market for the United States, and that Northern Ireland was a good way of gaining access to it. American companies investing in the area, he said, would not only benefit their own stockholders, but would also serve both the peace process, and America's national interest. One American businessman who has invested in Northern Ireland is Mr Al Rankin of NACCO Materials Handling, the world's largest manufacturer of fork lift trucks. The company has had a plant in Craigavon since 1979, which Mr Rankin said contained a motivated and highly productive workforce.

"Craigavon has become our most efficient, productive, and profitable plant," Mr Rankin said.

The First Minister, Mr Trimble, told the assembled business people that Northern Ireland now had a bright future and a new-found optimism.

"The time is right for your business in Northern Ireland," he said. "We want to be the right partner for you as your business expands into the European market."

The meeting is part of a renewed bid to attract further investment in Northern Ireland by American companies.

Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry has launched its own trip, in which more than 20 local companies leave today to visit Chicago and Dallas, joining the IDB party on the second leg of its tour.

The president of the chamber, Mr Stephen Kingon, said that politicians and the business community must collaborate to convince American companies that this was the time to invest in Northern Ireland.

"Corporate America already knows we have skilled labour, low operating costs, and excellent communications," he said. "They need to be told that we now have political stability, and only our politicians and business leaders together can tell that story convincingly."

Mr Kingon said that the combined marketing effort represented the most ambitious attempt ever made to boost exports and attract US inward investment to Northern Ireland. However, he said that Northern Ireland would now have to attract a new generation of high added-value businesses.