The North's Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, will tonight tell US blue-chip businesspeople in New York of the benefits of investing in Northern Ireland.
Mr McGuinness is on a three-day visit to New York with Northern Executive colleagues Edwin Poots and Sir Reg Empey ahead of the visit to Northern Ireland next week of the US ambassadors to Dublin and London, Tom Foley and Robert Tuttle.
They are leading a group of 25 leading US executives who, in turn, are visiting ahead of a major investment conference in Belfast planned for next spring.
The Northern Executive is also hoping that a meeting can be arranged next month in Washington between President George Bush and First Minister the Rev Ian Paisley and Mr McGuinness to boost the prospects of the spring conference.
Northern Executive sources said work was continuing to try to facilitate this meeting. However, there were concerns that Mr Bush's diary commitments could prevent it going ahead.
Mr McGuinness is tonight addressing the Celtic Ball in New York organised by the Irish Chamber of Commerce, USA. Among the 700 guests attending will be representatives of many Fortune 500 companies, including AIG and Mutual America, as well as investors and political leaders from across the US. Sir Reg and Mr Poots will also address the dinner.
Among the other speakers at the event will be Senator George Mitchell and E Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive of Coca-Cola, who is a native of Downpatrick, Co Down.
Mr McGuinness will continue the drive for US investment by saying that US investors in Northern Ireland would find an ideal strategic business location backed up by a highly trained and educated workforce.
"We aim to maximise the goodwill which exists in the USA particularly since the restoration of our political institutions on May 8th," he will say. "And I believe that we are at the start of not just a hugely exciting era in the political future of our island but also one which holds out great promise in terms of the development of a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States based on economic co-operation, cultural relationships and long-standing friendships."
