Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps she is taking in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Executive to increase foreign direct investment to Northern Ireland.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

The successful G8 Summit and follow-up investment conference have highlighted Northern Ireland as a great place in which to invest.

I continue to work in partnership with the Northern Ireland Executive Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Investment to attract Foreign Direct Investment to Northern Ireland building on the success of the Northern Ireland Investment Conference at which my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister made the keynote address.

On 7 November I co-hosted, with Arlene Foster, the Northern Ireland Investment Seminar at Lancaster House for a number of High Commissioners and Ambassadors to explain the benefits for their respective countries of trade and investment in Northern Ireland. NIO and Invest NI officials are now meeting the trade and commercial officers from the Embassies with a view to inviting their respective Ambassador to lead a trade delegation to Northern Ireland on a visit co-hosted by myself and the DETI minister.

The first two of these Ambassadorial visits will take place in September and October and it is envisaged that other visits will take place over the coming twelve months.

Arlene Foster has also invited me to participate with her at SIAL 2014 which will take place in Paris in October. SIAL is the world’s premier food exhibition and will provide a good opportunity to promote the excellence of Northern Ireland produce to the international food industry.