The cross-Border trade and business development body, InterTradeIreland, yesterday presented its draft strategic plan to an all-Ireland agency forum.

Details of the plan, which aims to improve cross-Border trade, were outlined to staff from 14 Government agencies and departments from Northern Ireland and the Republic.

It said it would work to enable:

co-operation on business development opportunities, North and South;

creation of new approaches to business development in a cross-Border context, in such areas as research, training, marketing and quality improvement;

support for business by making recommendations that would increase enterprise competitiveness in a North-South context in areas such as skills availability, telecoms, IT and ecommerce;

promotion of North-South trade and supply chains through business linkages, clusters, networks and partnerships;

taking on specific valueadded projects and events regarding trade promotion, and;

the development of a NorthSouth equity investment fund programme.

The plan was formulated following a series of roadshows by the body to gather opinions on the promotion of cross-Border trade and enterprise.

"We believe it provides a real chance of raising commercial co-operation on this island and delivering the sort of returns one should expect from the level of business carried out between neighbouring states," said Mr Liam Nellis, chief executive of InterTradeIreland.

InterTradeIreland is one of six cross-Border bodies set up under the British Irish Act of March 1999 to establish a channel for, and information source on, North-South trade and business development.