Nigel Dodds – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2014-05-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent estimate she has made of foreign direct investment in Northern Ireland.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

Northern Ireland remains one of the most successful regions in the UK for attracting foreign direct investment, attracting some 6% of inward FDI with around 3% of the UK population.

The Northern Ireland Investment Conference, which the Prime Minister and I attended, held last year is continuing to bear fruit and I welcome the recent announcement that Convergys – with whose senior management the Prime Minister took time at the Conference to discuss the benefits of Northern Ireland as a cost-effective investment location – is setting up a customer service centre in Londonderry in collaboration with its client EE.

This investment will bring 333 jobs to the city over the coming year and generate over £5million to the local economy annually.

The recent announcements from Concentrix of its intention to reinvest in Northern Ireland and add a further 1,043 jobs to its existing work force of 800, and from EY (which also attended the Investment Conference) of a further investment leading to 486 more jobs, are welcome votes of confidence that Northern Ireland is an excellent place to invest and to grow a business.

These two investments will inject some £38m in salaries into the Northern Ireland economy.

It is particularly heartening that so many companies choose to reinvest after they have established a presence in Northern Ireland and seen for themselves the benefits it can offer as a cost competitive business environment together with its high quality and well educated workforce.

The G8 Summit, which the PM brought to Co. Fermanagh in June 2013, also highlighted to the world the benefits of Northern Ireland as a place to visit and invest.