PRESS STATEMENT – PRESS STATEMENT – PRESS STATEMENT

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SDLP MLA BURNS: NO EASY FIX ON FOREIGN INVESTMENT
 

SDLP South Antrim MLA Thomas Burns said this week’s Investment Conference is a useful showcase, but we must be realistic about its limited potential for immediate employment generation.

He said: “This conference is a welcome initiative because it is important to demonstrate that our devolved institutions are taking charge of our economic future, that having delivered peace we can now set about delivering prosperity by promoting an enterprise culture.

“But we should see this event as the launch of a process of winning foreign direct investment. There is a great deal of goodwill towards the new Northern Ireland around the world, but international investors do not base their decisions on goodwill. The success that the Republic enjoyed from the mid-1990s was the result of 30 years of hard graft by the IDA and other agencies, 30 years that were wasted here.  

“We have achieved the fundamental political stability which is the absolute pre-condition for a successful investment strategy. What we now must do is put prosperity and the economy at the heart of our political debate. This will be a challenge for some parties and politicians but it must be done.

“We have got to keep the sterile sectarian politics of yesterday out of the investment arena. Fortunately, there is now a strong consensus within the local business community that the economic fortunes of both parts of this island are inextricably linked. All parties need to recognise that the international investment community quite simply recognises a single economy in Ireland and that this is the great strength of our offering to the investor.”

ENDS