A high-powered US business delegation was in Northern Ireland today as efforts continued to drum up interest in advance of the May Investment Conference.
President George W Bush's Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, Ambassador Paula Dobriansky, led the latest group of American business representatives.
"Collectively we will be listening to local business leaders and learning more about the economic opportunities that exist in high value employment sectors, such as research and development and innovation," Ms Dobiansky said.
The announcement last week that the Marriott group was opening a hotel in Belfast was very encouraging and would help raise interest, she said.
Economy Minister Nigel Dodds hosted a reception at Queen's University to welcome the delegation and which he said would raise the profile of the May conference.
He said delegates would see the strength of Northern Ireland's innovation and infrastructure, including the Centres of Excellence at both Queen's and the University of Ulster and the Innovation Centre at the Northern Ireland Science Park.
It is hoped that between 40 and 50 influential US business leaders will attend the conference in May. Invest Northern Ireland is shortly to send out invitations to the two day event.