BELFAST BRIEFING:IT MAY look like a party and sound like a party, but when the North's political leaders attend the White House today in Washington it will be less of a celebration and more of a business opportunity for them.
Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness are engaged in what could be Northern Ireland’s most important charm offensive yet on corporate America.
Their message is not a new one: it has been in place pretty much since the first IRA ceasefires. It is basically that Northern Ireland is a good place to invest in because it is a cost-effective location with a highly-educated workforce who have a good work ethic.
Before the tragic events of 11 days ago Robinson and McGuinness would also have been selling the fact that Northern Ireland was at peace after decades of unrest and was a safe location for investment dollars. Both men will continue to argue that the North is indeed still a safe location for investment dollars, but the terrorist attacks of recent days will once again cause sceptics in corporate America to question whether Northern Ireland is truly a peaceful location to invest in.
The debate over Northern Ireland’s long-running and often faltering peace process has always raised doubts in some quarters of corporate America.
Invest Northern Ireland, the regional development agency, has 73 American-owned client companies who have invested billions of dollars and created hundreds of jobs in the North.
Existing investors from the US have been important ambassadors for Northern Ireland. Many of them testified to their positive experiences in the North during the US:NI Investment Conference in Belfast last May. Significant investors such as Seagate, Caterpillar and Allstate delivered glowing testimonies to Northern Ireland’s ability to deliver value for money in terms of investment dollars and in people skills.
Yet there had always been a stubborn percentage of US companies which refused to contemplate Northern Ireland as an investment location.
The much-heralded US investment rush that would materialise once peace was cemented has never been realised.
Last year it appeared the North could be in line for millions of pounds of new US investment when four New York city pension funds unveiled a new $150 million Emerald Infrastructure Development Fund. It was intended that the fund would seek “investments in the growing economic infrastructure of Northern Ireland”.
How much has the pension funds invested in the North to date? The answer is zero. The fund is considering options, but it appears that in the last 11 months not a single one has materialised that would interest it.
It is as important today – perhaps even more so because of the global economic downturn – as it was when the first IRA ceasefires were announced that Northern Ireland attracts new US investment. That is why the current Robinson and McGuinness trade mission is so critical and why the recent terrorist attacks in the North are so devastating.
But the fact is these two former opponents have put past differences aside to sell Northern Ireland as an investment location. This in itself underlines how far the North has come.
Not everyone in Northern Ireland will celebrate St Patrick’s Day today; it is a bank holiday not a public holiday yet. That may change in the near future which would then put St Patrick’s Day on an even footing with July 12th which is a bank holiday and a public holiday in the North.
Yet there is only one crucial change which needs to take place this week. It is that corporate America sees and realises the significance of two political leaders in Northern Ireland from very different ideologies standing side-by-side reflecting the investment that the North Ireland has made in its own future.
