New hotels have opened, the latest investment being a £16m extension to Belfast’s first five-star hotel, The Merchant, opened in July 2010. The city is also a routine port of call for cruise ships – 40 liners dropped anchor at the Port of Belfast in 2010, bringing with them 62,000 passengers and crews. Between them, Northern Ireland’s three airports offer flights to a wide range of destinations in Britain and Europe with Continental flying to New York.
Around a third of the 700 externally owned companies in Northern Ireland are headquartered in North America including Bombardier, Seagate Technology, Allstate Corporation, Citigroup, Caterpillar, B/E Aerospace and the long-established DuPont. Stormont Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster is keen to add new names to this list.
The campaign to enlist more investment from overseas has taken on a new urgency as Northern Ireland comes to terms with harsh realities of the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review. Public expenditure accounts for more than 70 per cent of economic output in Northern Ireland.
But every cloud has a silver lining. Potential investors will note that the recession has depressed rents on commercial property to let in Northern Ireland and eased pressure on wages, while at the same time increasing the availability of skilled staff. Unemployment has risen from 4.1 per cent in 2008 to 6.8 per cent in summer 2010 and there are fears that public sector cutbacks could lead to the loss of up to 40,000 public sector jobs over the next few years.
In earlier times of recession, Northern Ireland’s reliance on the public sector helped to cushion the local economy. But this time round, with the private sector having already suffered a series of blows, the public sector finds itself in the eye of the storm. As all the parties in the Assembly readily agree, the Northern Ireland economy is in for an uncomfortable ride.
