President Bill Clinton was yesterday given much of the credit for Northern Ireland's falling unemployment rate and economic recovery.
As he met political leaders in Belfast the latest unemployment figures were released showing the number out of work had dropped 10,000 over the past year to 45,000 or 6 per cent.
The Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Sir Reg Empey, said the economy had grown steadily over the five years since the President's first visit to the North in 1995.
He said: "While this growth cannot be wholly attributed to the US, it is a fact that the involvement of the largest industrial power in the world has had a far-reaching influence on the Northern Ireland economy.
"Being in the international spotlight has had tremendous impact on our economy and all the statistics bear this out."
The High Sheriff of Belfast, Mr Tom Campbell, said that since the historic 1995 visit, American investors had poured £600 million into the Northern Ireland economy in investments which promised to create about of 11,000 jobs.
The latest figures show that there are now 701,000 people in employment in the region.
Of those 86 per cent are employees, 12 per cent self-employed, and 1 per cent are on Government employment and training schemes.
The downside of the latest Government statistics were the seasonally adjusted unemployment figures which showed a rise of 600 on the month to 42,000.
It is an upward trend which has been ongoing since August.