NORTH HOPING TO ATTRACT US INVESTORS - Canadian plane maker Bombardier has announced a £70m investment, and internet payment firm CyberSource says it is setting up an R&D operation and its creating 56 software development jobs. The companies are both in Belfast, where 120 executives from more than 80 leading US companies are gathering in the city for a three-day Northern Ireland investment conference. Invest Northern Ireland, the north's regional economic development agency, is hoping to promote investment and jobs, and the US companies are looking for a good reason to go there.
But last week, a British government sponsored review, written by Sir David Varney, said Northern Ireland needs to increase its employment and productivity rates and reduce the size of its public sector if it is to increase competitiveness. A previous review concluded that the British government should not allow Northern Ireland a reduced rate of corporation tax in order to compete with the Republic.
The chief executive of Invest Northern Ireland, Leslie Morrison, says the potential for business arising from this week's conference is significant. He says that out of the 120 US business executives at the conference 60% of them have not been in the North before and last night's networking reception went extremely well. Mr Morrison says the North's economy is suitable for niche manufacturing and tradable services - financial services, software development and business processing.
While admitting that a lower rate of corporation tax would be helpful for the North, Mr Morrison says that the type of projects that are attracted to the North are less tax sensitive and are designed not to transfer tax revenues into the area.
Mr Morrison says he has been very impressed by the new Taoiseach Brian Cowen and he says the relationship between him and the Northern Ireland Ministers is very good. He says he thinks Mr Cowen has the same objectives for Northern Ireland as the politicians there and says he expects the relationship to continue to be excellent.
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STUDENT ENTERPRISE WINNERS TO BE UNVEILED TODAY - The winning finalists of the Student Enterprise Awards, organised by the County and City Enterprise Boards, will be announced in Tullamore later today. The three categories see 300 entrepreneurs from 75 new companies compete for the top prize. The finalists for Co Wicklow, Base Movie Crew, are from St David's Holy Faith Secondary School, in Greystones. Sean Cleary, company secretary, says that after some market research, the students discovered there was a lack of VHS players on the market. They 'brainstormed' the idea of converting VHS tapes to DVDs and the idea just developed from there.
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MORNING BRIEFS - An interim management statement Grafton says it has a strong financial position, and that it is well placed to cope with the current challenging market. But it also says turnover in the four months to April was 8% lower than over the same time last year.
*** The Polish bank, in which AIB has an 80% shareholding, Zachodni WBK, reported a smaller-than-expected 7% earnings fall as its fund management arm suffered in the wake falling equity markets.
*** Aer Lingus says its total passenger numbers grew by 4.2% to 850,000 in April compared to the same time last year. Its load factor in April was down to 74.3% from 79.1% in 2007, the airline says, because of an increase in capacity.
