MINUTES OF 8^th MEETING OF EDF ENTERPRISE SUB-GROUP ON 12 MAY 2006

Attendees: Lord Rana, NICCI

Seamus McAleavey, NICVA

Wilfred Mitchell, FSB

Mike Brennan, DFP

Philip Rodgers, DETI

Mark Pinkerton, DETI

Stephen McArdle, Invest NI

Tim Losty, NI Bureau in Washington

Helen McConkey, DETI

WELCOME AND MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

1. Lord Rana welcomed members to the 8^th meeting of the Forum's Enterprise Sub-group. He also welcomed Mark Pinkerton, Stephen McArdle and Tim Losty and noted apologies from Patricia McKeown, Bernie O’Hare, Fiona Hepper and David Cochrane.

2. The minutes of the 7^th meeting were agreed without amendment.

MATTERS ARISING

3. All matters would be dealt with in the agenda.

SUB-GROUP WORK PROGRAMME

Action Relating to Marketing of Northern Ireland

NI Bureau in Washington

4. Tim Losty, Director of the NI Bureau in Washington explained the purpose and the objectives of the Bureau. He advised that the Bureau had consulted with stakeholders to determine what NI’s relationship with the USA should be and objectives included representing NI to the US Administration, building relationships with key organisations and identifying and developing US partner regions for mutual benefit. The Bureau provided NI with direct access to the US Administration covering such issues as education, small business administration and agriculture. The Bureau was also there to help Invest NI in the setting of its strategic directions.

5. Tim explained that the issue of citizenship was important in the USA and this provided opportunities for taking forward citizenship programmes and developing civil relationships. He advised that the Bureau’s approach was a corporate one, by selling NI plc and emphasising the need for regeneration of NI. The Bureau provided an overarching strategy for NI in the USA, concentrating on selling NI through good news stories and good communication, with the emphasis always on “win/win” through mutual benefits to both regions. Tim advised members about the publicity used by the Bureau in terms of newsletters, scanning of websites for good news stories and events such as St Patrick’s Day in the USA. Tim also explained about the Bureau’s State Outreach Programme and provided a number of examples, such as, DEL’s policy development partnership with North Carolina and Virginia covering workforce development technology, tourism and public services.

6. In response to members queries about monitoring trading growth between NI and the USA, Mr Losty advised that NISRA had some data but this was still relatively new. He also advised that the Bureau was liaising with Invest NI and others to develop collection of appropriate data.

7. In conclusion Mr Losty referred members back to the example of DEL’s work with North Carolina. The North Carolina situation highlighted that appropriately skilled employees and the right infrastructure were more important that grant-aid. North Carolina had engaged all stakeholders, community colleges worked with businesses to ensure that the right training programmes were in place and they had made sure that the disadvantaged in society were brought into the system. He also explained that the FDI market had changed. Businesses looking to invest were looking for business partnerships which could help the strategic growth of their business and could add value by bringing new skills to the economy. He suggested that there were benefits to attracting 20 job businesses with a long term growth prospect rather than a 200 job project which might disappear in the shorter to medium term. He suggested that Invest NI should engage further with the FE Colleges in NI as well as developing their programmes with NI Universities which would develop new businesses and new technologies.

Invest NI Business Information Portal

8. Stephen McArdle explained that Invest NI’s enterprise portal had been developed as part of the Accelerating Entrepreneurship Strategy. The portal was based on a DTI model but had been tailored for Northern Ireland with new local branding, supplemented by local content and tools. He explained that the portal contained numerous case studies and that set targets included 10,000 registered users / businesses and 20,000 visits per month. The portal aimed to provide first class online information for all businesses in NI and feedback to date had been very positive.

9. Mr McArdle gave a live demonstration of the portal and some of the free tools which would be made available to local businesses such as the tools available to help with taxes and related returns.

10. Members were impressed with the breadth of information available through the business information portal and the ease with which it could be retrieved. While they recognised that the portal was aimed primarily at local business people and promoting Invest NI’s business information, they felt that its potential value to business people overseas, was perhaps more limited. EDF members felt that in addition to this particular portal, work should continue to examine existing material which emphasised Northern Ireland’s overall image in a positive way. DETI would continue to work with Invest NI to see how best this might be achieved.

ACTION: DETI to continue its work to examine existing material which emphasised NI’s overall image in a positive way with a view to improving the marketing of NI as a quality place to live and work.

Action Relating to Accelerating Entrepreneurship Strategy (AES)

11. Wilfred Mitchell referred members to an update provided by Invest NI. The Entrepreneurship Division within Invest NI was undertaking a series of consultative meetings with key partner organisations which would be completed by early June. The objective of these meetings was to re-engage around a discussion of progress to date and achieve greater private sector participation in the next phase of the strategy. Organisations consulted include: Federation of Small Business; CBI; IOD; Ulster Society of Chartered Accountants; NI Chamber of Commerce; Enterprise Northern Ireland etc. Invest NI hads also engaged in a consultative process with a range of other Government Departments including DEL, DARD, DE, DSD and DETI.

12. A situation report was being prepared which would draw together this consultation material and evidence of impact from a series of evaluations already carried out on the individual components of the AES (e.g. The Start a Business Programme). To this would be added details of the research findings from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and other key sources. It was expected that an AES evaluation report would be prepared by September with a revised Strategy to follow in the autumn.

Action Relating to Exports

13. Members noted the update paper in relation the NI Chamber of Commerce’s work relating to exports. An Export Forum had been established which aimed to understand how to generate interest in exporting; identify best practice; identify areas which needed to be improved; and identify what the customer valued. The existing export support structures available to SMEs within NI had been reviewed and compared with other regions of the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Also, working with Invest NI a sample group of 250 SMEs, not previously involved in export but considered to have an exportable product or service, were identified. A telephone survey had been conducted with this sample group to identify the perceived barriers to export and the services or incentives that would encourage them to export. The survey was now complete and results were being tabulated.

14. The next step would be for the Export Forum to review the survey results and develop a set of proposals which it believed would encourage and support SMEs to engage in or grow their export activity. It was intended that a solutions paper would be presented in August / September 2006.

Action Relating to Entrepreneurial Culture in NI and Attitude to Risk

15. Seamus McAleavey advised that DETI Economists would produce a scoping document for the Enterprise Sub-group to consider. It was intended that this paper would identify the specific areas of research that might be pursued under the broad umbrella of ‘risk aversion’ and attempt to identify existing research relating to this wide ranging topic. Following discussions, the areas identified for further exploration included risk aversion amongst novice entrepreneurs and already well-established businesses and the issue of risk aversion within the public sector. The wider issue of risk aversion in the local private sector (in particular local banks) was also being considered. Work had begun in scoping this research and a ’way-forward’ paper would be available before the next sub-group meeting in August.

STUDY ON IMPACT OF EQUALISATION OF CORPORATION TAX AND OTHER FISCAL MEASURES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN NI

16. Lord Rana advised members about a meeting between NI’s business leaders and the Prime Minister and Taoiseach in April 2006 when it had been suggested that it would be useful to undertake a study on the impact of equalisation of corporation tax and other fiscal measures on economic developments in NI. He explained that the Prime Minister had made it clear that NI’s politicians needed to support any proposals before they were further considered. The Business Alliance had written to the Speaker of the Assembly about giving a presentation to MLAs and an update on this issue would be given at the June plenary meeting.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Plenary EDF Meetings – Agenda Items

17. Members had nothing to add to the plenary agenda.

Sub-group Report for June 2006 Plenary Meeting

18. Members agreed that a “to note” progress report would be prepared for the June 2006 plenary meeting.

ACTION: Secretariat to prepare draft report for clearance by Chair.

Date of Next Meeting

19. It was agreed that the next meeting would be held on 17 August at 9.30am at the Ramada Hotel.