The cross-Border Do Business In Ireland trade mission, began in Newry yesterday. It is being held in Dundalk today and is the largest and most diverse trade mission to visit the Newry/Dundalk region, according to its organisers.
"The objective is to bring North American companies to a region which hasn't traditionally been on the circuit of the large inward investment missions in the past," said Mr Conor Patterson, chief executive of the Newry & Mourne Enterprise Agency.
Despite this legacy, the region is gaining importance because of its strategic location between Belfast and Dublin, its ready supply of young, well-educated labour and the dynamism of its small business sector, he said.
"We would argue that it is the best location strategically in Ireland because it is equidistant between the two metropolitan centres on the island. Within one and a half-hour's drive from Newry and Dundalk, you have three million consumers. "We have a deep-water port at Warrenpoint and we are in the main transport access between Belfast and Dublin. Yet, you have none of the congestion problems that affect those cities, particularly Dublin," he said.
The trade delegation of North American companies includes representatives from New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Ontario. "We have sourced 25 companies from North America and Canada who we believe have an interest in doing business in Ireland," said Mr Patterson. "They're predominantly small and medium-sized companies with successful products which they want to bring to the European market place via the Northern Irish and Irish Republic markets."
"We feel this form of inward investment is more durable than the classic inward investment where a large overseas manufacturing or assembly company will locate on a greenfield site, which in its own right is very important," he said.
Many of the US companies do not have the resources to establish a greenfield site in a new market such as Ireland, he said.
"Their means of doing that is hooking up with a local manufacturer or service provider to provide the service or product under licence. The local company has an actual stake in the fortunes of the product. It's the classic licence scenario, but what it means is that the investment of intellectual property and resources is more durable," he said.
Many smaller US companies view Ireland as a good location to get an entry point into the rest of Europe, according to Mr Steven Westra, international project manager for Maine MEP.
"We're impressed with what we've seen. The people here are working hard and aggressively to develop partnerships," he said.
The Mayor of Franklin City, New Hampshire, Mr Anthony Giunta, said he had already identified a potential joint venture partner for his company Ecosoft, which designed software for the environmental industry.
Ireland was very technology driven and a natural place for US technology companies to seek partnerships, said Ms Diane Gates, president of Purple Circle Media, an Internet company.
