| Attendees: | Lord Rana |
NICCI |
Seamus McAleavey |
NICVA |
|
Geraldine Quinn |
FSB |
|
Michael Brennan |
DFP |
|
Philip Rodgers |
DETII |
|
Brian Gorman |
DEL |
|
Michael Maguire |
PA Consulting |
|
Jim McConnell |
DE |
|
Marian Kelly |
DE |
|
Helen McConkey |
DETI |
Welcome and Minutes of Last Meeting
1. Lord Rana welcomed members to the 5th meeting of the Forum's Enterprise Sub-group and noted apologies from Wilfred Mitchell, Bernie O’Hare, Patricia McKeown and Fiona Hepper. He also welcomed Michael Maguire, PA Consulting and Jim McConnell and Marian Kelly, DE who had joined the meeting cover the items on Enterprise in the Public Sector and Business Education Links.
2. The minutes for the 4th meeting were accepted without amendment.
NI Bureau in Washington
3. Members noted that Tim Losty had been unable to attend the Sub-group meeting and although he had offered to discuss the marketing of NI via a video link the length of the agenda had not permitted this. As Tim’s next visit to NI was too close to Christmas it was suggested that contact be made with OFMDFM to find out if an official would be available to discuss the Bureau’s marketing of NI.
ACTION: Secretariat to contact OFMDFM and consider whether a representative of that organisation would be available to discuss the NI Bureau’s marketing of NI at the next meeting.
Meeting with Entrepreneurs
4. At the last meeting members agreed that it might be useful to engage with Terri Scott at Invest NI to see if she might organise for Invest NI client company entrepreneur(s) to join members at a future Sub-group meeting. Members were advised that Invest NI was sourcing possible contacts and would report back to the Secretariat in advance of the Group’s next meeting.
Business Education Links
5. At the last meeting it had been agreed that a representative from the new Strategy Unit in the Department of Education (DE) would be invited to update members on the Unit’s work and discuss how EDF support might help to progress the Unit’s work.
6. Jim McConnell, Head of the new Strategy Unit within DE explained the background to the establishment of the new unit. He advised members that the new unit was in the early stages of development and it was envisaged that key activities would include reviewing the current provision of business education, understanding what is needed by both the education and business sectors and ultimately match supply and demand. He explained that there was already work underway in schools and referred members to the curriculum changes.
7. He went on to explain that it was considered that EDF would be a good conduit for linkages to the wider business community and it would be helpful to have EDF support / advice on the way forward, particularly in relation to the development of a new business education strategy. Dr McConnell advised that it was intended that an Advisory Board would be established to oversee the work of the unit and it was hoped that EDF would be represented on the Board. Members were agreeable to this idea.
8. Members voiced concern about the strategy being developed from the bottom up and were worried that an emphasis on schools’ needs and delivery by schools would not deliver a strategic approach to the issue of business education activity. The need for EDF members to fully engage in the development of a new strategy was re-emphasised as this would be the best way to ensure members’ concerns were addressed.
Enterprise in the Public Sector
9. Lord Rana reminded members that one of the issues discussed at the last meeting was the need for the public sector to be more enterprising. Seamus McAleavey had referred members to a PA Consulting report about making the ROI civil service more enterprising and members had agreed that Michael Maguire would be invited to talk to members about this.
10. Michael Maguire gave a brief background to the PA Consulting report on the Evaluation of the Progress of the Strategic Management Initiative in ROI. He explained that there were both internal and external dimensions to the report i.e. internal issues such as HR and IT whilst external issues covered, for example, Freedom of Information, customer service etc. He went to explain that the reform work within the ROI Service had been civil service driven.
11. In response to a query from members Michael explained that one key area within the NI Civil Service which business perceived to be overly bureaucratic and risk averse was the accountability/economic appraisal regime. He explained that there was a perception that within the ROI system there was a willingness to take more risks and the appraisal process was more straight forward.
12. During the discussion which ensued, members recognised that accountability was a complex and important issue given that it involved decisions surrounding the use of taxpayer’s money. It was accepted that the political/accountability environment may lead civil servants to favour caution rather than risk taking. It was accepted that some decisions were delayed because of poor quality economic appraisals and that if used properly, to inform the decision making process, rather than simply as an exercise to be completed economic appraisal was a helpful tool in ensuring the ‘right’ project was pursued. It was recognised that any change to the appraisal process would require engagement with all stakeholders i.e. civil servants, audit office and local politicians if meaningful change was to be brought about.
Business Alliance Views on Sub-group Work Programme
13. Lord Rana advised members that, at the Sub-group’s request, members of the Business Alliance had reviewed the Group’s proposed work programme at a meeting on 31 October. He advised that the Business Alliance agreed that responsibility for many of the challenges associated with the Enterprise agenda fell to the private sector. He advised that key enterprise issues from a Business Alliance perspective included the re-shaping of public expenditure, help for existing businesses to grow, the inadequacies of the local planning service and legislation and the need for fiscal flexibility.
ACTION: Secretariat to amend Sub-group work programme to reflect Invest NI views.
Invest NI Views on Sub-group Work Programme
14. Members noted that Invest NI was, in the main, supportive of the Sub-group’s proposed work programme and noted the specific comments about the programme.
ACTION: Secretariat to amend Sub-group work programme to reflect Invest NI views.
Final Prioritisation of Work Programme
15. Lord Rana reminded members of the need to prioritise the Group’s work programme for the December plenary meeting. It was agreed that the Secretariat would issue the revised version and suggested prioritisation of the Group’s work programme to members in advance of the next meeting scheduled for 22 November.
16. Members also discussed the issue of tourism and it was agreed that the importance of tourism to the NI economy was not appropriately reflected in the Group’s work programme. It was agreed that the Secretariat would consider what action might be taken by the Sub-group in the area of tourism and reflect this in the revised work programme.
ACTION: Secretariat to issue amended work programme to members for consideration in advance of the next Sub-group meeting.
Communications Strategy
17. Members were reminded that each Sub-group has been tasked with reviewing the Forum’s draft communication strategy, in particular the message(s) for their Sub-group area and report back to the MTSPs Sub-group which was responsible for finalising the strategy for the December plenary meeting.
18. Lord Rana reminded members that at the last meeting members had asked the Secretariat to re-draft the enterprise message contained in the Forum’s draft communication strategy into a number of shorter and sharper bullet points for Sub-group members' consideration. There were no responses received to the re-draft which had been issued to members on 4 October and members had nothing further to add at the meeting.
ACTION: Lord Rana to report Enterprise Sub-group views on the Communications strategy at the MTSPs Sub-group meeting on 11 November 2005.
Enterprise Indicators
19. Members were reminded that the MTSPs Sub-group had requested that each of the Sub-groups review the indicators set for their Sub-group area to ensure they were content. Members were referred to Paper 6 which set out the DETI Economists’ response to a number of queries they had raised at the last Sub-group meeting.
ACTION: Secretariat to forward members a copy of DETI’s evaluation programme.
ACTION: Lord Rana to report Enterprise Sub-group views on the Enterprise Indicators at the MTSPs Sub-group meeting on 11 November 2005.
Plenary EDF Meetings – Agenda Items
20. Seamus McAleavey suggested that it would be useful to include an item on the investment strategy at the plenary meeting in December 2005. He suggested that EDF needed to consider the strategy in terms of how it would contribute to economic development in NI.
Any Other Business
21. The issue of the Sub-group’s report for the December plenary meeting was discussed. Members agreed that this should take the format of a copy of the Group’s proposed work programme along with a one to two page cover note seeking plenary endorsement of the Group’s work programme. It was agreed that the Secretariat would prepare a draft report for consideration at the next Sub-group meeting.
ACTION: Secretariat to prepare a draft of the Sub-group’s report to December plenary for discussion at the next Sub-group meeting.