APPENDIX 20
Untitled
Letter to the Clerk of the Committee from
the Chief Executive of the Local Enterprise Development Unit
Thank you for your letter dated 17 March 2000, and
for your invitation to LEDU to make a submission on the public
expenditure aspects of inward investment in Northern Ireland.
As you mention in your correspondence, primary
responsibility in this area rests with the Industrial Development
Board. While LEDU would have some views on the topic, we would
wish—on this occasion—to let our colleagues at IDB
take the lead.
5 April 2000
Letter from the Clerk of the Committee
to the Chief Executive, Local Enterprise Development Unit
You wrote to me on 5 April indicating that LEDU,
although it would have some views on the topic of inward investment
in Northern Ireland, preferred, on this occasion, to let IDB take
the lead. However, on 12 April, the Committee took oral evidence
from Into the West and CORE. One of the Into the West witnesses
was Mr Joe Doherty, LEDU regional manager in Omagh.
In the light of this evidence, the Committee
would be very interested to learn what LEDU is doing in other
parts of the Province. I should therefore be grateful if you could
let me have a note setting out the general basis on which LEDU
is involved in attracting inward investment and describing the
action it takes. As the Committee is close to concluding this
inquiry, it would be helpful if I could receive the note as soon
as possible.
17 April 2000
Reply from the Chief Executive, Local
Enterprise Development Unit
In response to your letter of 17 April I would
like to confirm that LEDU has no direct involvement in the attraction
of mobile inward investment into Northern Ireland, allowing IDB
to take the lead, as is its function.
From time to time we may negotiate very small
cases (employing up to approximately four people) referred to
us from IDB.
In the context of the Committee's meeting of
12 April Joe Doherty explained that "Into the West",
with which LEDU is associated as part of its partnership approach
to local economic development, seeks to stimulate new investment
in counties Tyrone and Fermanagh by:
(a) encouraging talented expatriate Northern
Ireland people to return and start up their own businesses under
LEDU's Make It Back Home programme; and
(b) brokering International Strategic Business
Alliances (ISBAs) between SMEs in Northern Ireland and their counterparts
in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Any inwards investment leads that Into the West
may come across are immediately passed to IDB for follow-up. These
are rare occurrences.
There are no other analogous initiatives anywhere
else in Northern Ireland, I hope this clarifies the situation.
21 April 2000
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