Northern Ireland must invest more in bio-technology jobs if it is to develop a true knowledge-based economy, it was claimed today.
Ciaran Sheehan, managing partner of headhunters, Clarendon Executive, said global trends indicated that with the growth of business process outsourcing and cheaper production processes in Asia and parts of the Pacific Rim, economies like Northern Ireland's may well lose more jobs like the 900 being made redundant at Seagate in Limavady.
He said: "We must look to knowledge-based industries like bio-tech, where we can develop high-value positions that add value to the economy, generating income from the knowledge employed and retaining that knowledge here rather than seeing it relocated abroad.
"Bio-technology offers that sort of return on investment and Northern Ireland needs to be investing more than it does so currently, despite millions already spent and more than 4,000 jobs created."
If Northern Ireland made a concerted effort to attract senior management into the life sciences arena, Mr Sheehan said the area would grow more readily. In an era of unprecedented political and economic progress and with more people choosing to pursue a career in Northern Ireland, he said he was hoping to build on the campaign launched last Christmas at Belfast International and George Best City airports to lure back ex-pat talent.
Biotechnology combines economic disciplines like molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, and genetics and then utilises them in IT, robotics and a variety of engineering processes.
Mr Sheehan added: "We are seeing a discernible rise in demand for qualified people in the bio-tech industries but finding them in Northern Ireland is difficult, even though we produce around 4,000 life-science graduates a year, so naturally this is leading us to search more extensively overseas.