BELFAST BRIEFING:REINVENTION IS the new buzzword when it comes to doing business in Belfast – whether it is the Orange Order reinventing its annual Twelfth of July marches as a supposedly tourist-friendly, revenue-earning "Orangefest", or the determination of one of the North's oldest companies to chart a new path despite stormy economic waters.
A century ago Harland & Wolff was one of the most successful shipbuilders in the world with a workforce of 15,000 people. Today, the giant cranes remain one of Belfast’s most enduring landmarks but not a single ship has been built in the city in the last seven years.
But Harland is fast becoming a “go to” specialist in the renewable energy sector. It has been involved in a range of projects from massive wind turbines to ocean energy generators.
Earlier this month, it won a multimillion-pound contract to manufacture a new prototype tidal turbine. The Orkney-based firm Scotrenewables has chosen the Belfast company to build its new 250kw model.
For Harland it marks another opportunity for the company to demonstrate its track record in the marine renewables sector. But it also creates the scope for the company to showcase the engineering skills which made it a world leader nearly 150 years ago.
Harland’s ability to reinvent itself offers a beacon of hope to Northern Ireland.
Although it may employ only a fraction of the people it once did and its contribution to the local economy is a fragment of what it previously was, the fact that it has survived against the odds is an uplifting example, particularly in these troubled days.
In an odd twist, the ill-fated Titanic, built at the yard in east Belfast, could also act as a catalyst for hope in the shape of the £97 million Titanic Signature Building, which is currently under construction.
The North’s Minister for Tourism Arlene Foster estimates the building, which will open in April 2012 to mark the centenary of the Titanic’s doomed maiden voyage, could attract up to 400,000 visitors a year. She hopes it will become a cornerstone of a new strategy to attract tourists, boosting the local economy.
Possibly the North’s biggest challenge is reinventing its public-sector-dominated economy as one led by the private sector. The UK government is planning savage spending cuts which, according to local economist Richard Ramsey, could cost Northern Ireland up to 20,000 civil service jobs.
Negative overspill from the Republic’s continuing economic woes and the hangover from the North’s property downturn casts a shadow over any potential growth prospects, the Ulster Bank economist says.
Separately, research published today shows house prices are still falling in Northern Ireland. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors survey also warns that the economic and public spending environment will continue to have a major impact on prices in the immediate future.
If this plays out it will be deeply damaging for the economy as a whole but particularly for the beleaguered construction sector.
The Construction Employers Federation estimates that more than 20,000 people in the North have lost their livelihoods in the last two years.
It believes key industry players and the North’s Executive should embrace new options in a bid to reinvent the sector and help protect existing jobs. It has suggested the government give serious consideration to using private finance to fund major infrastructure projects as just one possible way of invigorating the construction sector.
The CEF is not the only business or employers’ body in the North that is trying to come up with solutions. The Institute of Directors and the Confederation of British Industry, to their credit, have not shied away from pointing out uncomfortable truths about the local economy out, particularly to political leaders.
Encouragingly, the belief that it is now up to Northern Ireland itself to reinvent its economy – to take risks and make the leap that will guarantee a better economic future – is attracting a groundswell of support.
