North West focus of state investment co-operation

Investment Minister Arlene Foster said Invest NI had a good working relationship with the IDA particularly at Executive and Board level.

She said Invest NI shares information with IDA from time to time, and has regular contact with officials from the IDA.

Notwithstanding this she said "the bottom line for foreign direct investment is that Invest NI and IDA are competitors in the same field."

According to the Minister one of the main achievements of the rivals was the creation of an enterprise zone in the North West.

"The most notable joint initiative between Invest NI and the IDA in the last three years is the establishment of the North West Business & Technology Zone (NWBTZ) in 2007," she stated.

"This initiative, partly funded by the EU Interreg programme, is a cross-border business and technology zone which harnesses the synergistic benefits of linking the educational research institutions, graduate pools, business clusters and the enhanced property solutions in both Londonderry and Letterkenny; all linked by a high specification telecoms network.

"The objective of the NWBTZ is to enable the North West cross-border region to compete more favourably for new inward and indigenous investment," she added.

"Invest NI and IDA have subsequently established the 'Northwest Now' initiative.

"The objective of Northwest Now is to pursue mutually beneficial cross-border cooperation and to develop specific initiatives that can exploit the combined attributes of "paired" urban centres on each side of the border.

"This is an initiative supported by the EU Interreg IIIA programme for Ireland and Northern Ireland," the Investment Minister concluded.