US-Ireland summit urges collaboration, writes Conor O'Clery in Washington DC

The announcement of job losses in both Northern Ireland and the Republic - 460 at Belfast aerospace company Shorts and over 400 at Tellabs plant in Shannon - served to underline the importance of the theme of the US-Ireland Business Summit in Washington yesterday, ie developing new strategic alliances with US business.

Both the Tánaiste Ms Mary Harney and the NI Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Sir Reg Empey, emphasised the need for government investment in research and development to attract and retain new investment.

The two-day conference, in the Ronald Reagan conference centre in Washington, opened with a message of goodwill from US President George W. Bush, read by US ambassador to Ireland, Mr Richard Egan.

"Today we continue to work closely with the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland to expand markets, foster economic collaboration and develop important strategic alliances," Mr Bush said in the message.

US Commerce Secretary Don Evans hosted the first session of the summit, which is being attended by business leaders from the US, the Republic and Northern Ireland as well as academics and government officials.

According to Mr Evans, the US remains ready to do its part in support of the peace process that began with the Good Friday Agreement.

Expanding commercial relationships was the key to the effort to maintain peace, he said, adding that the US Commerce Department urged American firms, especially small to medium-sized exporters, to consider the benefits of doing business in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Sir Reg Empey announced in an address to the conference that $120 million (€121 million) would be invested in the Northern Ireland economy to promote research and development.

He said a key to economic success was the encouragement of entrepreneurs.

In Northern Ireland, "there is a negative community attitude to risk-taking; we are determined to change this".

The NI economy minister emphasised that the economic foundations of Northern Ireland were strong.

In the five years to December 2001, manufacturing output increased by 19.2 per cent compared to a fall of 1.4 per cent in the UK as a whole: in the same period, manufacturing productivity increased by 27.7 per cent compared with 14.5 per cent in the UK, and unemployment at 5.4 per cent was considerably less than the EU average.

Ms Harney told delegates that the Republic of Ireland must move on to a new plane founded on a strong research ethic.

"To use an analogy from the entertainment industry, we have for 30 years been like the gifted musician playing the tune," she said.

"From now on we want to be the composer writing the music."

The Tánaiste said later that the commitment of €2.5 billion for research and development announced earlier had never been done before and had helped bring Ireland on a par on a per capita basis with the US.

Some $700 million would be spent on building up the capability in the universities and about $600 million would support individual researchers coming into Ireland.

"Some of the world's key players have come to Ireland in the last couple of months to head up various research projects," the Tánaiste added.