O’Conall Street

The other night I was sitting out on the patio under the crisp winter sky with a mug of Spanish hot chocolate. A perfect end to a long day on O’Conall Street.  I drifted back to an dinner I attended recently in the company of twenty or so other business people.  We enjoyed a lively and extremely constructive debate with Nigel Dodds, the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Investment. I have always recognised Dodd’s ability and to see him able to dedicate himself to the furtherance of the Northern economy was heartening. He talked extensively about the challenges facing our small region and was very open minded about how we might effect a step change in economic terms over the next five years. He was lobbied hard on the issue of corporation tax and was strongly supportive of the need to achieve a significant reduction from the British Government. He also addressed the skills challenge facing ever changing manufacturing and services sectors.

Last week at the gigis I had a number of conversations with senior business figures about the past few months. Optimistic is the only word to describe them. To a woman, and man, they are up for the new North. They are increasingly crossing the border, building deal by deal, an island economy which threatens nobody. They are also looking to the Executive for leadership and vision. They want to be incentivised to invest, encouraged to hire and to be able to profit from their own risk. That seems to be to be a fair deal. In a month when some of our traditional industries surrendered to global pressures knowing there is a new breed of manufacturing are service sector entrepreneurs in our small region determined to make a go of their businesses, right here right now, is an indication that after a lost generation the time has come to start trading.

John Simpson, the elder statesman of Northern economists was commenting just the other week that our public sector although big is no bigger percapita than Scotland’s. Whilst efficiencies are needed and their is certainly scope for a reduction in the number of public servants North of the border, the real answer is to grow the private sector allowing it to become the genuine driver in this region, making us better able to maintain the public services we hold so dear. I left that dinner pretty sure this is one thing Nigel Dodds and I can agree on.  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Business, Current Affairs, Politics, Unfiled. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.