Open for Business/Northern Ireland:The North's economy has relied for many years on its many small businesses. Yet initiatives are now afoot, such as the Northern Ireland Science Park, to create a new, knowledge-led economy, writes Francess McDonnell

Heavenly aromas and Portadown - not necessarily the first impression most people may have of the Co Armagh town.

But, 24 hours a day, the glorious smell of baking bread fills the air around Irwin's Bakery on the outskirts of Portadown.

For nearly a decade, the town has struggled to project an image at odds with its media coverage. Each July for the last 10 years, Portadown has been dragged into an annual row over a bitter marching dispute.

For businesses based in the Portadown area, July has always been a tense month - most firms take a two-week holiday over the July 12th period.

But some companies, like Irwin's Bakery, do not have the luxury of closing up for two weeks. Orders have to be met regardless of what the local political situation is.

The Irwin family has been baking bread in Portadown for more than 95 years. The grandfather of the current joint managing directors, Brian and Niall Irwin, established the tradition when he opened a grocery shop in 1912.

His wife and sister-in-law proved themselves to be talented home-bakers, and began to supply a range of cakes and bread for the shop.

Unable to keep up with demand for their products, WD Irwin decided to hire more bakers. Today the company employs 420 people, and prides itself on maintaining the traditional values which WD Irwin built his business on.

Niall Irwin believes this is an ethos shared by many family-run businesses in the North, but he also believes it is an ethos which is under threat.

"Family firms are the backbone of Northern Ireland. Indigenous companies have worked hard to create and grow their businesses - sometimes in very challenging times.

"I think it is imperative now for the Assembly to get behind indigenous businesses and help build on all the good work they have put into Northern Ireland."

Statistics show that the North has more small firms than the average in the UK, and they make a greater contribution to the economy relative to that of their UK counterparts. More than 90 per cent of all small firms employ less than 50 people, and a significant number of these small firms are manufacturers.

Niall Irwin says unless the Assembly intervenes to help local businesses, particularly manufacturers, the very businesses which helped sustain the economy through the Troubles could disappear.

"Industrial rates are set to rise in Northern Ireland next April to 50 per cent. If that were to happen it would do a lot of harm."

As it is, the North's manufacturing sector is now a shadow of its former glory. Once it was a world leader in shipbuilding, engineering and textiles, and these industries employed tens of thousands of people.

Manufacturers in Northern Ireland still strive to be world leaders, but today the textile sector employs only a fraction of the people it did just 10 years ago. And while Harland and Wolff still exists, there will never be another ship built in Belfast.

The manufacturing sector cannot compete on cost with low-wage economies, and it will not be in a position to regenerate thousands of new jobs.

Nigel Smyth, director of the Confederation of British Industry in the North, believes the Assembly does have a role to play when it comes to the issue of industrial rating.

But he is also in no doubt of the extent of the challenge now facing the new Assembly.

"The big question is how do we create high-quality jobs that will help transform the Northern Ireland economy? We need to raise the average earnings in Northern Ireland by creating more high-quality jobs, and one of the fundamental requirements in achieving that is having the right skills base."

He claims there is a big opportunity for the North to invest in producing a labour pool which could be the envy of Europe, and it's time for local politicians to show leadership by investing in the future.

Smyth says initiatives such as the Northern Ireland Science Park are the only way to create a new, knowledge-led economy.

Like many other business leaders, he believes it is time for tradition to make way for innovation.

The €59 million science park is on a 24-acre site in the new Titanic Quarter in east Belfast. At the heart of the site lies the Thompson Dry Dock, where the Titanic was fitted out. It symbolises the link between Belfast's industrial heritage and its hi-tech ambitions.

A cluster of 22 hi-tech companies have already created more than 1,000 jobs in the science park, and there's room for at least another 2,000 in the short-term.

According to Cormac Kelly, the science park's director of technology and enterprise, it already generates a wages bill of more than €44 million. "Our objective is to create a self-sustaining, internationally-recognised science park which will attract new investment - both from foreign-direct investors and also by encouraging new entrepreneurs."

He believes the location of the science park generates a unique link with the past.

"There is a great sense of history here in Titanic Quarter; there is the legacy of innovation from the turn of the century, but there is also energy here about the future - an excitement and real buzz about what we can achieve.

"We have created a centre of knowledge-based companies, but we also have a community of like-minded people who are at the forefront of their respective fields - both in research and development and innovation.

"The Northern Ireland Science Park represents the future for Northern Ireland - it is about making the most of our opportunities."

The science park is unashamedly setting out to project a very different, glossy image at contrast to Northern Ireland's gloomy industrial past.

The first development on the site was the Innovation Centre, a 5,203sq m (56,000sq ft) award-winning facility which has been quickly followed by the likes of White Star House, a 3,716sq m (40,000sq ft) building which is home to the American Citigroup's Northern Ireland technology centre.

All of the park's facilities boast the very latest technology, from international broadband connectivity to category six cabling and carrier independent hub.

A Belfast-based internet backbone exchange also ensures any data packages sent by science park companies can be accessed anywhere on the US eastern seaboard in 80 milliseconds.

But if there is one aspect of the already impressive science park which demands the "wow" factor, then it has got to be Queen's University's €89 million Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT). Shaped like the bow of a ship, the institute's futuristic-looking, angled-glass facade makes a striking statement.

However, according to Prof John McCanny, director of the institute, any first impressions it leaves are more than skin deep.

"We want to be recognised as a major international research centre - the research engine is what drives any successful science park.

"ECIT is about taking a fresh, modern approach to exploiting new opportunities, about encouraging spin-off companies from university research and development, and of working with other bodies to attract new investment into Northern Ireland.

"ECIT is about commercialising world-level expertise. It is a very exciting time - we're an integral part of a whole new vision, one that is going to create a vibrant, thriving Titanic Quarter."