MINUTES OF THE TWENTY-THIRD meeting

 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FORUM, 2 MARCH 2005

UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER, JORDANSTOWN

 

Present:            See attached list (Annex 1)

 

Apologies:         Barry Gardiner, John Spellar, Peter Bunting, Michael McGuckin, Patricia McKeown, Anne O’Reilly, Lawrence Smyth, Tom Gillen

 

1.                  Welcome and Apologies / Minutes of Last Meeting

 

1.1               Mr Robinson welcomed those present and invited Prof Richard Barnett, Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster, to give a brief overview of the key aspects of the University’s activities.

 

1.2               Prof Barnett welcomed EDF and advised members that the University had three key areas of core business namely, teaching, research, and knowledge/technology transfer.  Following the recent review of its Technology Transfer Policy the University had decided that as a lead agent it would focus its resources on activities up to the incubation stage of the process.  It would, however, continue the work in partnership with others in the final stages of the process.  Prof Barnett acknowledged the importance EDF afforded to working in partnership and advised that this was also vitally important to the University.

 

1.3               Mr Robinson noted the apologies and welcomed Lord Rana, John Mann and Bernie O’Hare to their first meeting of the Forum.  Mr Robinson reminded members that, at the Away-Day, it had been agreed that DFP, DE and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) should be invited to join EDF.  Mr Robinson welcomed Andrew McCormick, DFP, to the meeting and noted apologies from DE and FSB.

 

1.4               The minutes of the meeting held on 8 December 2004 and the Away-Day on 9 February 2005 were agreed, without amendment.

 

2.         Economic Vision for NI

 

2.1               Mr Robinson advised members that, in light of discussions at the Away-Day, the agenda for this meeting had been adapted, insofar as possible at this early stage, to reflect the desire for changes to the Forum’s ways of working.

 

2.2               Members agreed that the Away-Day had been very successful and particularly welcomed the workshop structure and the opportunity to actively engage with other key Government Departments and representatives of the main local political parties.  Members acknowledged that the participative approach to developing the Economic Vision had created a real sense of shared ownership and were keen to ensure that the benefits of this were not lost going forward.

 

Future Operation of EDF

 

2.3               During discussion it was agreed that Forum members should be more actively involved in setting the agendas for meetings and that consideration should be given to adjusting the structure of meetings.  Suggestions included a mixture of both formal plenary meetings (similar to the current format of the quarterly meetings) and workshops (similar to the structure used at the recent Away-Day) as well as greater use of Sub-groups.  It was also suggested that the quarterly meetings should be longer to allow for more in-depth discussion of substantive items.  Members also indicated that they wished to maintain regular engagement with representatives of the main local political parties.

 

2.4               Members agreed that four new Sub-groups should be established, one for each of the Vision drivers namely, Innovation, Enterprise, Skills and Infrastructure.  One of their key roles would be to prioritise the issues to be addressed in relation to each of the Vision drivers.  These Sub-groups would be chaired by EDF members and consist of EDF members and senior representatives of those key Government Departments with a specific interest in the Sub-group area.  The Sub-groups may wish to co-opt a small number of people from the social partner organisations with special expertise in a specific subject.  An offer was also made by the representatives of some of the organisations to provide secretarial support to the Sub-Groups.

 

2.5               It was noted that Ministers had decided to develop a regional economic strategy for Northern Ireland in line with a policy for the UK, building on the work that had gone into the Vision, with the aim of publishing the strategy in Autumn 2005.  Andrew McCormick emphasised that, while this work would be led by DFP and DETI, Ministers’ continued intention was that it should draw heavily upon engagement with stakeholders and should be based as far as possible on a consensus based approach.  Hence the output from each of the Vision Sub-groups would inform the development of the strategy, and the Departments would want to engage further with EDF in taking this work forward.

 

2.6               It was also agreed that the chairs of the Vision Sub-groups would together form a Business Committee which would make recommendations on future agendas and on how to make best use of the time available at EDF meetings.  Mr Robinson acknowledged that these new arrangements would have resource implications for members and agreed to consider if DETI might be in a position to provide some support in this regard.

 

ACTION:           Secretariat to make early contact with members to identify their preferences for joining the Vision Sub-groups and seeking volunteers to assume the role of chair

 

ACTION:           DETI to consider the availability of resources to help members meet the additional resource requirements of supporting the new Sub-group structure

 

MTSPs Framework

 

2.7               Seamus McAleavey reminded members of the work to date by the MTSPs Sub-group in refining the MTSPs framework.  The next key task would be to set informed targets for the performance indicators and he reminded members that it had been agreed at the Away-Day that further work, in the form of scenario planning, would be required.  It was acknowledged that the Forum needed a clear understanding of exactly how the new model would work and that the scenario planning approach would both inform the setting of targets and help members to identify the areas where additional action would be needed to increase the likelihood of realising the Vision.

 

ACTION:           MTSPs Sub-group, supported by DETI economists, to explore the options / approaches to scenario planning with a view to populating the revised framework with targets

 

Communications

 

2.8               Members discussed the Forum’s approach to external communication, particularly with the media, and agreed on the importance of developing an effective communications strategy.  It was agreed that the Secretariat would give some further thought to this and bring proposals to the next quarterly meeting.

 

ACTION:           Secretariat to prepare a draft communication strategy for discussion at the June meeting

 

3.         DETI Research Agenda

 

3.1               Philip Rodgers outlined the background to the DETI research agenda for 2005-08 and explained that this had been structured around the four Vision drivers, with a crosscutting theme of competitiveness.  He advised that research projects included on the agenda were considered to be high priority and that each project would be taken forward under the research protocol which would ensure that key stakeholders would be involved at appropriate stages in the process.

 

3.2               Bernie O’Hare advised that the research agenda recently published by DEL included a number of projects which also covered some of the research areas identified in the DETI agenda (e.g. projects relating to economic inactivity).  Philip stated that a tri-partite Research Group involving DEL, DETI and Invest NI had been operating for some time and that opportunities for collaboration between the two Departments would be explored through that Group.

 

3.3               Members emphasised the importance of ensuring that the research agenda was not overly retrospective but rather focused on informing what needed to be done going forward.  It was suggested that there should be greater alignment between the research and the Vision drivers and that opportunities to benchmark with other regions should be maximised.  The role of the FE sector in undertaking applied research was recognised and it was agreed that this should be made more explicit in the document.

 

3.4               In response to a query about previous DETI research projects, members were advised that the work on business expenditure on R&D and an update on the Regional Innovation Strategy would be published at end March 2005.  It was noted that, the tradeable services had been completed and was being considered internally by DETI but due to slippage, the manufacturing research was still work in progress.  These 2 research topics would come to EDF in due course.

 

3.5               Members were asked to forward any specific concerns / comments on the draft research agenda to DETI economists as soon as possible.

 

ACTION:           EDF members to forward any specific comments to DETI economists as soon as possible.

 

DETI economists to liaise with DEL colleagues to ensure there is no overlap between the two Departments’ agendas.

 

4.         Skills Strategy/FE Implementation

 

4.1               Bernie O’Hare advised that approximately 70 written responses had been received in relation to DEL consultation on the Skills Strategy and that further consultation had taken place by way of meetings with key stakeholders.  It was intended that all inputs would be analysed by end March 2005.

 

4.2               In relation to implementation of the FE strategy, Mrs O’Hare advised that DEL had appointed two Sectoral Development Advisers to cover four of the six priority skill areas and that a report on the review of the size and structure of the FE sector was expected shortly.

 

5.         Any Other Business

 

Written Progress Reports

 

5.1               Members noted written progress reports covering the Enterprise Sub-group’s Residual Issues, the DEL Employability Taskforce work and DETI Key Issues.

 

            Commissioner for Sustainable Development in NI

 

5.2               John Gilliland informed members that his appointment as NI Commissioner for Sustainable Development would be announced on 7 March and that he would welcome engagement with the social partner organisations in taking forward this work.

 

            Invest NI Corporate Plan

 

5.3               Fabian Monds reminded members that consultation on the Invest NI Corporate Plan would close on 8 April and he encouraged members to put forward any comments they may have on the draft document.

 

6.         Close

 

6.1       In drawing the meeting to a close, Mr Robinson reminded members that James McLaughlin would lead a short tour of the University’s nanotechnology centre immediately after lunch.

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ANNEX 1

 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FORUM MEETING – 2 MARCH 2005

 

ATTENDEES