BELFAST BRIEFING/FRANCESS McDONNELL:THE FUTURE of one of Northern Ireland's most important and historic economic assets is currently in the spotlight.

The subject in question is not owned by anyone, nor does it answer to anyone. In fact, it does not have any shareholders, and all its profits are reinvested in the business.

Latest financial figures show its pre-tax profits jumped to £18.7 million (€24 million) in 2006 and some 17,000 jobs depend on its continued success.

So what could be so strategically important but still be allowed to operate as an autonomous body, governed by the legislation which created it? The answer to the riddle is the port of Belfast.

Belfast is one of four main commercial trust ports in the North - the other three are Coleraine, Derry and Warrenpoint. Trust ports are self-determining bodies that are not accountable to government, which means they effectively own themselves.

In practice, they are run by a management team and a board of commissioners. Appointments to the boards are made by the North's Department of Regional Development and, as a result of recent legislation, the department theoretically also has the "power of direction" over the ports.

Last month, the North's Minister for Regional Development, Conor Murphy, announced a sea change for the ports. Murphy believes trust ports should no longer be treated as public corporations.

At the moment, although the ports are effectively their own bosses, they do have to operate within tight constraints.

Now, following a major policy review, Murphy intends to bring new legislation before the Assembly which will set out a different framework for how these ports should operate.

He believes that the ports could effectively grow their business by finding new sources of finance rather than by having to fund proposals as they currently do through the government.

Ports in the North compete for business directly with ports in the South. Competition on the east coast is particularly strong, with Belfast, Warrenpoint, Greenore, Drogheda and Dublin all competing against each other.

Murphy says his new legislation will give ports in the North more commercial powers so they can respond more quickly to new opportunities and therefore win new business.

But he has also promised that the proposed new General Harbours Bill will make ports accountable for the significant assets they control - and that is where the debate really gets interesting.

Trust ports play a crucial role in the North's economy, particularly Belfast port.

The port of Belfast handles about 60 per cent of all Northern Ireland's seaborne trade and some 20 per cent of the entire island's. In 2006, roll on/roll off ferry operations carried a total of 343,000 freight vehicles.

Belfast is the second largest port on the island and one of the busiest ferry ports - last year, more than 1.2 million passengers used the port.

The port controls approximately 1,950 acres. Of this, 855 acres are used for operations directly related to port business, a further 90 acres are reserved for nature conservation and the rest of the estate is either leased or under negotiation.

The port's estate is also home to some of the North's key employers - Bombardier Shorts, George Best City Airport and Harland and Wolff.

It is also redeveloping Titanic Quarter in east Belfast, land that was once used for shipbuilding, as part of a public/private partnership with Titanic Quarter Ltd, which is part of the Dublin-based Harcourt Developments group.

Other property interests include Sydenham Business Park, which has attracted a number of high-calibre tenants, including the Bank of Ireland and Fujitsu, and the Holywood Exchange retail development, which is now home to IKEA.

The port's land bank is obviously worth millions of pounds - a fact which has not escaped the attention of the North's Strategic Investment Board. This is a government body set up to determine the future of strategic investment in Northern Ireland and how it may be funded.

The board has made no secret of the fact that it believes that if the North's Executive were to take control of some of the port of Belfast's huge land bank it could effectively sell it off and raise much-needed capital for investment.

Selling off the port's land bank is not a new idea - previous assemblies have considered it and former members of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners have also considered privatisation.

The question now for Northern Ireland is who should decide what happens to the land currently controlled by the port of Belfast?

Who really has Northern Ireland's best interests at heart? Is it now time to consider how one of the North's most historic assets could set a new course for the economy?