217 business start-up inquiries in city

This has resulted in 88 one to one advice sessions with Invest NI staff and has also yielded 79 business plans.

Mrs Foster provided the figures in response to an Assembly Question.

She also advised there was some interest in Londonderry in a new initiative aimed at boosting links between small businesses and local universities, colleges and research organisations.

Forty-five local firms have received ‘Innovation Vouchers’ since the scheme was launched in June 2008.

The programme provides a voucher of up to £4000 to enable small enterprises to engage with one of the 41 universities, colleges and other publicly funded research organisations throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Furthermore, £172k in credit was forked out to local companies as part of Invest NI’s Access to Finance Strategy.

Access to Finance is a £100m suite of funding initiatives to ensure that early stage companies with high growth potential are not held back because they cannot access finance.

According to Mrs Foster: “There are three equity funds and two loan funds either operational or planned within Invest NI’s Access to Finance Strategy.”

This includes the £10million NISPO Fund - an equity and proof of concept grant operational since 2009, through which local firms have received £172k in up front finance.

The figures suggest the profit-motive is not entirely dead in Londonderry despite just three per cent of Northern Ireland’s registered businesses being based here - the lowest number of firms outside of North and West Belfast.

It follows the revelation in March that over 800 business premises in Londonderry lie desolate.

There are 13 empty factories, 270 empty warehouses and stores and 167 empty shops in Londonderry at present, according to the Finance Minister Sammy Wilson. A total of 817 unoccupied non-domestic properties were vacant here at March 18. This was up from 787 two years ago