Econmic priority will deliver prosperous society: Dodds

Economy Minister Nigel Dodds has set out his aims to promote the development of a globally competitive Northern Ireland.

Economic growth has been identified as the top priority over the next three years in the Executive’s Draft Programme for Government.

Commenting on the economic priority, Economy Minister Nigel Dodds said: “A sustainable and productive economy is the bedrock for building a peaceful, prosperous, fair and healthy society.

“The objective is to develop a high value added, innovative, enterprising and competitive economy, leading to greater wealth creation and job opportunities for all. This is especially important in the context of yesterday’s announcement and the job losses that will happen in the second half of next year in Limavady.

“We have been given a good budget and have set some challenging targets over the next three years. In particular, we need to increase productivity and boost employment levels through foreign direct investment and increased exports.”

Setting out the targets, Mr Dodds said: “Invest NI will aim to promote inward investment projects promising over 6500 new jobs by 2011 and will aim to secure investment commitments of £1.2billion. It also aims to help 45 new start up businesses to become exporters outside the UK by 2011.

“Tourism is another area of potential growth. We’ve set the ambitious goal of increasing the number of tourists visiting Northern Ireland to 2.5million and grow tourism revenue to £520m each year by 2011.

The Minister went on to refer to the global economic context: “In setting these ambitious targets, we need to recognise that we live in a fiercely competitive world economy, and that global economic conditions, including exchange rates, will have an influence on outcomes. But we will be doing everything within our power to deliver on these goals.”

The Minister went on to highlight the importance of telecoms and energy infrastructure and said: “Telecommunications are vitally important to strengthening our economy. We will work with the private sector to seek to offer an unrivalled telecoms infrastructure to drive up the competitiveness of local businesses and to attract internationally mobile investment in the high-technology and tradable services sectors.

“Security of energy supplies, the increasing use of renewable energy sources, and the cost of energy are also important issues for the future. The priority is to build a more competitive and sustainable energy industry.

“The Single Electricity Market provides a framework for a new wholesale market in line with the EU vision for regional electricity markets. The challenge will be to ensure that it delivers greater competition as well as improved security of supply. Our key goal is to ensure that 12% of our electricity is generated from indigenous renewables sources by 2012. The cross border grid study will inform the way forward for increased renewable energy development and deployment , including investment in additional grid infrastructure north and south.”

The Draft Programme for Government, the Draft Budget and the Draft Investment Strategy will be the subject of a 10 week public consultation process.

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