| Attendees: | Lord Rana, NICCI |
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Seamus McAleavey, NICVA |
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Michael Brennan, DFP |
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Fiona Hepper, DETI |
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Michelle Scott, DETI |
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Brian Gorman, DEL |
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Helen McConkey, DETI |
Welcome and Minutes of Last Meeting
1. Lord Rana welcomed members to the 4th meeting of the Forum's Enterprise Sub-group and noted apologies from Wilfred Mitchell, Bernie O’Hare and Phil Rodgers. (Following the meeting Patricia McKeown telephoned the Secretariat to ask that her apologies be noted for the meeting.)
2. The minutes for the 3rd meeting were accepted without amendment.
NI Bureau in Washington
3. Fiona Hepper reminded members of their discussions at the last sub-group meeting about the NI Bureau’s package for selling NI as a place to invest. Members reviewed the information provided by the Bureau and agreed that it would be useful to invite Tim Losty to their next meeting to discuss in further detail.
ACTION: Secretariat to invite Tim Losty of NI Bureau to next meeting of the Sub-group
Sub-group Work Programme: Prioritisation
4. Lord Rana reminded members that it had been agreed that, following the September EDF plenary, contact would be made with the Business Alliance (BA) for its view on (i) the proposed action in relation to BA representation on a high level Advisory Group to be established following AES review; and (2) the need for additional funding and changes in fiscal policy to allow NI to become self-sustaining.
5. During the discussions which ensued members agreed that it would be useful to have the Business Alliance’s views on the full work programme before any decisions were made in relation to prioritisation and implementation of the programme. It was also agreed that the report and Action Plan would be passed to INI for comment.
ACTION: Lord Rana to arrange for Sub-group work programme to be discussed at the next meeting of Business Alliance (BA) on 31 October.
ACTION: Secretariat to forward Sub-group work programme to Invest NI for comment.
ACTION: Secretariat to rearrange October meeting of Sub-group to follow the Business Alliance meeting.
ACTION: Sub-group members to consider adding an action to the work programme based on paragraph 9 of Sub-group Report to September EDF in relation to public sector risk averse culture.
ACTION: Secretariat to invite M Maguire to next Sub-group meeting to discuss PA Consulting report into making the ROI civil service more enterprising.
ACTION: Secretariat to obtain and issue a copy of PA Consulting’s report into making the ROI civil service more enterprising.
ACTION: Sub-group members to consider possible case studies to highlight and explain the difficulties faced when dealing with the systems operated within the public sector.
Communications Strategy
6. Lord Rana advised that, at members’ request, the Secretariat had produced a draft communications strategy for the Forum for the September plenary meeting. Following discussion at the plenary meeting it had been agreed that the key messages for the individual sub-group areas should be discussed at sub-group level and comments forwarded to the Secretariat.
7. Following discussion about the enterprise message members agreed that this needed further consideration and asked the Secretariat to prepare a re-draft, into a number of shorter and sharper bullet points, for Sub-group members' consideration.
ACTION: Secretariat to re-draft enterprise message in the draft communication strategy into shorter and sharper bullet points and issue to members for consideration.
Vision Framework
8. During discussion about the indicators proposed for the Enterprise driver in the new monitoring framework developed by Regional Forecasts, members agreed that further thought would be required about as to whether or not the indicator relating to inward investment was appropriately placed under the Enterprise driver. Members were concerned that the indicators as drafted did not fully reflect the Sub-group’s concerns relating to the need for a culture change. Members also raised the issue of the return on public sector investment on Invest NI projects.
ACTION: DETI Economists to consider whether or not the inward investment indicator in the new monitoring framework is best placed within the Enterprise driver.
ACTION: DETI Economists to Review GEM to determine appropriate enterprise indicators for MTSPs framework which appropriately reflect the Group’s emphasis on the need for culture change.
ACTION: DETI Economists to review current data in relation tradeable services and value-added to determine if there are any appropriate enterprise indicators which might be included in the revised MTSPs framework.
Enterprise Scenarios
9. Seamus McAleavey reminded members that Regional Forecasts had developed a forecasting model which could predict the impact that changes in the Vision productivity drivers might have on the Goals. He explained that Regional Forecasts would soon be ready to accept scenarios from EDF and that the MTSPs Sub-group had concluded that the specialist knowledge of the Vision Sub-groups meant they would be in the best position to identify realistic scenarios for the model. He went on to explain that the scenarios put forward by each of the Sub-groups would then be discussed by the MTSPs Sub-group before a finalised list was submitted to plenary EDF for consideration.
10. Members discussed a number of issues and agreed that members would consider possible scenarios at the next Sub-group meeting.
ACTION: DETI Economists to consider viability of an exercise to determine the return on public sector investment on Invest NI projects and report back at next meeting.
AES Evaluation: Start a Business Programme Terms of Reference (ToRs)
11. Fiona Hepper referred members to the draft ToRs for the forthcoming review of Invest NI’s Start A Business Programme. She explained that the review would look at the rationale for Government intervention, the achievement of policy objectives, the appropriateness of delivery mechanism, the achievement of targets and any wider benefits the Programme had delivered. She also advised that DETI would welcome members’ views / comments on the ToRs and asked that these be forwarded to the Secretariat by 29 September.
ACTION: Sub-group members to consider ToRs for the “Start A Business” evaluation and forward comments to the Secretariat by close of play on 29 September 2005.
Plenary EDF Meetings – Agenda Items
12. Lord Rana reminded members that at the June plenary meeting it had been agreed that the Sub-groups would, in future, feed agenda items through their Chairs to the Secretariat to co-ordinate future agendas.
13. Members agreed that they were not yet in a position to make any decision with regards to agenda items for the December plenary and that this would be re-visited at the next Sub-group meeting.
Any Other Business
Business Education Activity
14. Fiona Hepper advised that the new business education strategy unit had now been established in the Department of Education. Members agreed that a representative from the new unit should be invited to the next sub-group meeting to inform members about the Unit’s work.
ACTION: Secretariat to invite a representative from the new business education strategy unit in DE to the next Sub-group meeting.
Invitation for Entrepreneurs to meet with Sub-group Members
15. Lord Rana reminded members that he had issued letters to a number of NI entrepreneurs to advise them of the Sub-group’s work and invite them to meet with members to take their views and assist the Sub-group with its work. Unfortunately, those contacted had been unable to take up the offer.
16. 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.
ACTION: Secretariat to contact Terri Scott, Invest NI about organising for Invest NI client company entrepreneur(s) to come along to a future Sub-group meeting.