City not a special case

Investment Minister Arlene Foster has written to Derry City Council explaining that the Government will be following the advice of the panel of the Independent Review of Economic Policy (IREP) and adopting a laissez faire approach to the location of new investment.

Mrs Foster wrote to the local authority late last year after it forwarded a motion to her demanding she ensure that any future spending by Invest NI is distributed in an "equitable and accountable manner."

In a lengthy letter of reply the Minister assured councillors that DETINI and Invest NI attach a high priority to standards of accountability.

But she pointed out that the Londonderry area would not be directly targetted by her Department for investment despite its high rate of unemployment. Dole queues in Londonderry stretched once again in December and the district has the worst rate of unemployment in the whole of Northern Ireland alongside Strabane on 6.9 per cent.

Notwithstanding this Mrs Foster wrote that "in relation to the location of investment, the view of the Panel was that government policy should not seek to unduly influence the location of firms withn Northern Ireland."

She continued: "Indeed, the report highlights that FDI will naturally gravitate towards larger urban areas where they can benefit from proximity to customers, suppliers and other institutions such as Government.

"Furthermore, the report also acknowledges the importance of ensuring that rural areas are better linked to urban areas, in order to allow workers to live where jobs are located.

"The Panel are therefore clear that they believe that other Departments have an important role to play in addressing regional disparities, particularly in relation to transport links." The Minister also pointed out in the letter that she had specifically asked the IREP to address how inward investment should be distributed within Northern Ireland from district to district.

"I would highlight that I specifically asked the Review Panel to consider the sub-regional distribution of inward investment, support for indigenous businesses, and the effectiveness of policy in encouraging the location of investment," the Minister stated.

"The Panel's assessment revealed that, in terms of district council areas, Londonderry received the second highest number and value of offers of support over the 2002-8 period.

"Indeed when considered on a per capita basis businesses in Londonderry received offers in excess of 500 per head of population over the six year period under review - the third highest in Northern Ireland," she added.

Despite this investment many believe more needs to be done by the Executive to bring jobs to deprived areas of Northern Irleand.

The Londonderry Sentinel reported late last October that at the end of the 2008/9 financial year four separate offers of foreign direct investment had resulted in 865 new jobs and a total planned investment of 36.26m.

But by last autumn just thirty new jobs had been created as a result of a total planned investment of 1.68m in the financial year 2009/10.

On the other hand figures released by Mrs Foster have shown that Londonderry received twelve employment-related offers of direct foreign investment over the past five years resulting in thousands of new jobs.

And since 2004 the number of new jobs promoted through FDI stands at 2,050 and the number of existing jobs safeguarded stands at 1,442.

In her letter to Derry City Council Mrs Foster promised to continue to do all she could to promote economic growth and prosperity throughout Norhtern Ireland. After a period of consultation on the IREP Mrs Foster issued an action plan in response to its recommendations on January 25 saying she "strongly supported" the proposed amalgamation of the Department of Employment and Learning and DETINI under a new Department of the Economy.

Her action plan also strongly emphasised innovation, Research and Development (R&D) and export growth and proposed greater co-operation across all departments to help grow the economy as alluded to in her letter to the Londonderry municipal

authority above.