A new guide to "Winning Business in the Northern Ireland Public Sector" has been published by Enterprise Ireland as part of its programme to encourage companies to target the North for business.

Public sector spending in the North is estimated to be worth £2 billion (€2.54 billion) a year, with software and information technology services emerging as major spending areas. The overall programme, supported by the EU to enable small and medium-sized enterprises to compete in the £551 billion (€700 billion) EU public procurement market, is aiming to assist suppliers to achieve an additional £25 million (€31.8 million) in orders over the next two years.