MINUTES OF 14th MEETING OF EDF ENTERPRISE SUB-GROUP ON 7 FEBRUARY 2008

 

Attendees:       Mark Sweeney, NICCI (Chair)

                        Wilfred Mitchell, FSB

                        Anne Tohill, DETI

                        Phil Rodgers, DETI

                        Clare Reid, Experian

                        Jeremy Fitch, Invest NI

                        Yvonne Curran, DETI (Secretary)

 

Apologies:        Fiona Hepper, DETI

                        Patricia McKeown, NIC/ICTU

                        Seamus McAleavey, NICVA

                        Bernie O’Hare, DEL

 

 

WELCOME AND MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

 

1.     Mark Sweeney (Chair) welcomed members to the 14th meeting of the Forum’s Enterprise Sub-Group.  He welcomed Anne Tohill from DETI, Jeremy Fitch from Invest NI and Clare Reid from Experian.

 

2.     The Chair advised Members that minutes of the Sub-Group’s 13th meeting on 26 November 2007 were agreed by members via email and have been posted to the EDF website.

 

MATTERS ARISING

 

3.     The Chair reminded members that there were a number of matters arising from the last meeting.

 

Export Marketing Campaign

 

4.     The Chair directed Members to Paper 2, an update from Invest NI which detailed proposals for a corporate marketing campaign focused on raising levels of export activity in indigenous businesses.  The aim of the campaign will be to promote greater wealth and economic growth within Northern Ireland, by working with any manufacturing and tradable services business that has export potential. In turn this will increase the prospect of improving productivity by enabling businesses to become more internationally competitive.

 

5.     The Chair noted that there were a number of cross cutting themes in relation to raising levels of export activity and these were reflected in the Sub-Group’s previous recommendations on the Accelerating Entrepreneurship Strategy (AES).  He stressed that it was important that any future corporate campaign should be easily recognised (through strong branding) and innovative. Furthermore, he noted that the impact of the proposed campaign should be measured and in turn recognition given to any future success arising from the campaign.

 

6.     Jeremy Fitch explained that the corporate advertising campaign was under consideration as part of Invest NI’s new Corporate Plan.  He advised Members that planning was currently at the embryonic stage and that the Sub-Group’s suggestions / views would be welcomed and could be drawn upon to inform the overall campaign.

 

ACTION:           Invest NI to provide further detail of marketing plan for exports once it is available.

 

7.     Members agreed it would be useful to re-visit the issue in 6-9 months to ascertain whether or not their recommendations had been taken into account.

 

ACTION:           EDF Secretariat to propose as an agenda item at Autumn meeting.

 

Tourism

 

8.     The Chair advised Members that, following consultation with all the key stakeholders in the tourism industry, DETI had finalised the evaluation of the Tourism Strategic Framework for Action 2004 - 2008.

 

9.     Phil Rodgers informed the sub-group that the evaluation had been presented to the ETI Committee, and that DETI’s Tourism Policy Division was now working with key stakeholders towards the development of a successor to the Tourism SFA.  He advised that the main findings of the evaluation suggested that the priorities of the SFA were correctly focused but the processes / mechanisms for delivery were not as effective as they should be.  He informed Members that the recommendations flowing from the evaluation would be addressed as the revised SFA was developed.

 

10. The Chair reminded Members that at the November meeting they had reached a similar conclusion to those presented in the evaluation noting that a lack of clarity in processes and mechanisms could adversely affect progress.  Members agreed it would be useful to revisit the issue once the successor to SFA had been developed.

 

ACTION:           EDF Secretariat to propose as an agenda item at Autumn meeting.

 

11. The Chair drew attention to the issue of skills gaps/shortages within the economy noting that there is strong support among EDF Members for a specific focus on this issue at the EDF plenary meeting.  He drew attention to the need for a clear cross departmental response on the skills issue.  The Chair proposed that a more in-depth focus on where skills gaps exist is required and that the issue should be considered, across the Vision Sub-Group themes. He noted that proposals to identify immediate, short and long term solutions to address the skills gap were needed urgently.  He stressed that EDF had tremendous opportunity to affect the policy response to this issue, especially as by its nature no single department can be expected to solve the skills deficit alone.  He agreed that a lot of work is ongoing across Departments e.g. skills strategy, careers strategy but suggested this has not yet been communicated to EDF Members and milestones for progress were not apparent.  Wilfred Mitchell reiterated the need for evidence of actions to tackle the skills issue.

 

12. Jeremy Fitch stated that Invest NI and DEL are working closely together to address this issue and drew attention to the recently established memorandum of understanding between Invest NI and DEL; He noted that there are already a number of existing bodies which have responsibility for the delivery of skills policy in NI. Members agreed it would be useful to have an overview of these structures at EDF plenary.  Jeremy also emphasised the need for joined up working between business / government / academia.  The Chair agreed and noted that the business sector had a particular contribution to make in this regard; however, clear direction from policy makers is also required.  Jeremy reinforced that skills are pivotal to the attraction of FDI in Northern Ireland.

 

13. Anne Tohill informed Members that it was the intention that skills would be a key item on the agenda at the March plenary meeting as members had requested that the EDF plenary was given over to this issue.  She also enquired whether a representative from Invest NI might attend the March EDF meeting given Invest’s role as the main agency interfacing with the business community and therefore the unique insight which Invest NI would have on specific skills gaps/shortages.   Jeremy Fitch noted that whilst DEL is the natural policy lead on this issue if Invest NI representation was required Tracey Meharg should be approached.

 

ACTION:           EDF Secretariat to record members request that Skills should be the main agenda item for the March plenary meeting and to liaise with DEL in relation to attendees.

 

14. On the issue of Skills for Tourism, the Chair indicated that DEL had expressed a willingness to enter into discussions with any individual employer in the Tourism/Hospitality, or other industries, regarding particular issues.  It was noted that, at a strategic level, DEL had highlighted that it engages primarily with sectoral bodies, such as People 1st (the Sector Skills Council for tourism), which are charged with determining industry skills needs and conveying these to the Department and training providers.

 

Review of the Enterprise S/G work over the last year

 

15. The Chair reminded Members that at the last meeting it was agreed the Sub-Group should consider the impact it has made on the issues upon which it has focused during the 2007/08 year.  He reminded Members that they had considered the review of the Accelerating Entrepreneurship Strategy, Tourism and FDI.  The topic choice had been determined by the priorities set last year and the availability of evaluations/research/reports for the Sub-Group to give consideration to.

 

16. It was suggested that the focus of the Sub-Group’s next meeting would be North South Economic Cooperation.

 

17. Phil Rodgers noted that most of the work for this report had been completed and that there may be limited scope for the Sub-Group to influence the outcomes.   The Chair suggested the discussion should focus more on the recommendations / conclusions in the report and whether or not the Sub-Group can progress these with the business community / government.  Wilfred Mitchell noted that the North South relationship is not set in stone, but rather evolving and there is therefore further scope for EDF engagement.

 

ACTION:           EDF Secretariat to circulate the Comprehensive Study on the All Island Economy in advance of the next meeting.

 

ACTION:           Members to review the recommendations of the Comprehensive Study on the All Island Economy in advance of the next meeting.

 

Future work plan

 

18. The Chair asked Members to review the 2007/08 work plan and decide if the topics have been significantly progressed, or if there were areas which should be carried over into the 2008/09 work plan.  He also asked Members to consider additional agenda items for the 2008/09 work plan.

 

ACTION:           EDF Secretariat to seek input from members on future agenda items in advance of next meeting and include as an agenda point.

 

DETI FDI RESEARCH PROJECT

 

19. Anne Tohill introduced the DETI FDI research project, providing Members with background to the research project and setting out the key objectives notably the need to identify the opportunities for the attraction of FDI in tradable services in future and the need to identify where policy interventions are required to exploit  in full FDI opportunities.

 

20. Clare Reid (Experian) provided an overview of the research project.  Her presentation introduced the rationale for the research, particularly the Programme for Government target of 6,500 FDI job promises by 2011, and the increased FDI in the tradable services sector.  She outlined the research methodology, including details on the survey conducted, and the key findings in terms of recent trends, drivers, characteristics, experience, location factors, impacts and the future of FDI.  She also outlined the findings of benchmarking against comparable regions, i.e. Ireland, Sweden and Poland.

 

21. Based on the findings of the research she suggested Northern Ireland will continue to see growth in global FDI flows with opportunities in tradable services, but there will be a continued decline in traditional manufacturing areas.  She noted that computer and related activities e.g. financial services software, IT technical support, R&D in information software offer the strongest potential for future FDI in tradable services to NI. She indicated that whilst there is likely to be strong growth in the creative industries and other sectors this is unlikely to be matched by similar growth in FDI flows in these sectors.  Finally she noted the potential opportunities to build on manufacturing FDI and the related R&D base.  She recommended that the findings from the research inform Invest NI’s existing FDI Strategy.  Reference was made to the importance of an adequate skills base in Northern Ireland to attract FDI. It was reaffirmed that a continuous flow of appropriately skilled labour will be essential if the higher value-added jobs goal is to be achieved. She outlined the "The Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme” run by the Scottish Executive, which enables overseas students to stay in Scotland for two years following graduation without the need for a work permit, and which encourages students to remain in Scotland after graduation.  Collaboration across departments was also identified as a key element to enable a step change in attracting FDI, as was the importance of strong political support.

 

22. Members welcomed the research report and broadly endorsed its recommendations.  The Chair enquired about the potential to benefit from linkages with companies in the South of Ireland.  Clare Reid suggested that there was likely to be potential in this area, especially as there was some evidence that location issues in Dublin were creating obstacles for growth in some companies.  Jeremy Fitch confirmed that this had been evidenced by the recent and significant Bank of Ireland Securities Services project in specialist funds administration which had chose to locate in Belfast.

 

23. Jeremy Fitch provided a presentation setting the context for FDI in Northern Ireland.  His presentation focused on context, definitions, Invest NI’s recent performance in attracting FDI to NI, the FDI proposition, priority areas and future challenges.  He explained the benefits of FDI to the economy, highlighting some of the recent success stories.  He emphasised that the quality of jobs created is a key priority for Invest NI whilst noting that there continues to be an underemployment problem in Northern Ireland.  He also noted the importance of reinvestment by companies who have chosen to locate in Northern Ireland and stressed that selling Northern Ireland based on track record is key to future success.

 

24. Members discussed the presentations agreeing that the buoyancy of the global economy would present a future challenge to the attraction of FDI to NI. Jeremy Fitch highlighted that reduced financial incentives post 2011 will present a major challenge for continued FDI in Northern Ireland.  The issue of the impact of appropriately skilled labour was also raised and Members agreed addressing this issue is paramount to the attraction of future FDI.  Members stressed that there is a need for urgent action in this regard if opportunities are to be seized.  Members emphasised the importance of persuading investors to come to Northern Ireland to see what is on offer.

 

ACTION:            EDF Secretariat to request that Skills should be the main agenda item for the March Plenary.

 

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

 

Date of Next Meeting

 

ACTION:           EDF Secretariat to contact members with a date for the next meeting to be held in April.

 

 

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS

 

ISSUE

ACTIONS ARISING

LEAD

TIMESCALE

Export Marketing Campaign

 

Invest NI to provide further detail of marketing plan for exports once it is available.

Invest NI

Once information is available.

Export Marketing Campaign

 

EDF Secretariat to propose as an agenda item at Autumn meeting.

EDF Secretariat

November

Tourism

EDF Secretariat to propose as an agenda item at Autumn meeting.

EDF Secretariat

November

Skills

EDF Secretariat to record members request that Skills should be the main agenda item for the March plenary meeting and to liaise with DEL in relation to attendees.

EDF Secretariat

By end of February.

North South Cooperation

EDF Secretariat to circulate the Comprehensive Study on the All Island Economy in advance of the next meeting.

EDF Secretariat

By end of March.

North South Cooperation

Members to review the recommendations of the Comprehensive Study on the All Island Economy in advance of the next meeting.

Enterprise Sub-Group Members

In advance of next meeting.

Future Work-Plan

EDF Secretariat to seek input from members in advance of next meeting and include as an agenda point.

EDF Secretariat

By end of March.

Date of Next Meeting

EDF Secretariat to contact members with a date for the next meeting to be held in April.

EDF Secretariat

By end of March.