THE International Fund for Ireland will press ahead with its reconciliation efforts in Northern Ireland, despite Friday's IRA bomb in London.
IFI chairman Mr Willie McCarter said the attack would not deter it or its donor nations from fostering cross-community harmony and new jobs.
"The fund has been active for nine years through some very difficult times ... I would hope that it will not be too long before things are back on track here, but that will not deter the fund from proceeding towards its twin objectives," he said, launching his organisation's annual report in Belfast.
"We will continue to build on the important gains in community reconciliation that have been made during the past 18 months," he said.
The IFI annual report showed that the fund spent almost £30 million last year on 300 projects, bringing total investment since 1986 to £298 million sterling in over 3,200 individual projects.
Earlier this year, the fund established nine years ago by the British and Irish governments commissioned a report from KMPG Management Consultants to assess its performance.
KPMG reported that the IFI generated 16,645 jobs by September 1994, which, together with 7,142 jobs in construction and other areas, provided a total of 23,7 87 jobs.
Mr McCarter said that the KMPG report showed that the fund was achieving "some quite extraordinary results".
