We are smart, hard-working and the same as North Americans: US software chief

Cathy Brune, senior vice-president and chief technology officer for Allstate - parent firm of Allstate Northern Ireland - told a meeting of 200 Chicago business leaders last week that Londonderry and Northern Ireland generally is a great place to invest.

"The infrastructure there is incredible," she told a meeting attended by First and Deputy First Ministers, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness in Chicago before last week's traditional St Patrick's Day glad-handing session at the White House.

"And who doesn't want six extra hours of productivity in your day? The cultural compatibility makes it so easy to do business there and the people will keep you there forever. They are well-educated. They are hard-working."

Allstate - then Northbrook Technology started with 100 employees in Belfast in 1998 but now employs 1,500 in Londonderry, Strabane and Belfast as well.

Ms Brune also told potential investors not to be put off by our collective dissociative cultural personality as this was a city that "some call Derry and some call Londonderry."

The First Minister talked up low business costs here saying setting up an office "would cost you about half what it would cost you if you were setting up in London and about 30 percent less than if you were setting up in Dublin."

Ms Brune echoed this but also said "cultural compatibility" makes it easier for Allstate's employees here to work.

Aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina victims were being processed in Northern Ireland before other insurance companies could start, she explained.

Declan Kelly, economic envoy to Northern Ireland, said the wireless infrastructure - most notably the recently installed transatlantic Project Kelvin - is a big plus.

"You can drive from Derry, where Martin lives, to Belfast, where Peter lives, and you will have full wireless connectivity for the entire journey. I live in New York and you can't keep a full signal from Tribeca to Park Avenue."