§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what measures are in place to support Northern Ireland's existing and new high technology and telecommunications industry and entrepreneurs; and if he will make a statement. [131525]
§ Mr. PearsonInvest NI employs a broad range of measures to assist existing companies and entrepreneurs in the hi-technology and telecommunications sectors. The principal form of support available to assist significant new investment proposals (by new or existing businesses) is Selective Financial Assistance, which may contain elements covering capital and revenue grants in addition to loans and equity participation. Invest NI also operates a comprehensive series of schemes and programmes aimed at providing support which can be tailored to the needs of individual companies or entrepreneurs.
These measures assist Invest NI to achieve the objectives set out in its Corporate Plan 2002–05. They therefore focus on promoting innovation and stimulating higher levels of R&D and knowledge transfer; helping companies to achieve higher levels of growth; promoting a more enterprising culture; raising the number of business starts; and attracting new inward investment.
224WInvest NI has achieved a highly credible performance in its first year of operation. Key Innovation targets have been met or exceeded; Growing Existing Businesses and Business Start-up targets have been substantially achieved; and performance in attracting new inward investment has been encouraging, despite the continuing global downturn in foreign direct investment. In particular, Invest NI has assisted the setting up of 74 new, potentially high growth companies in the hi-tech and telecommunications sectors. Its offer of £14.3 million support towards business proposals by companies in these sectors represents a total investment of £109 million.
Invest NI has also played a key role in establishing the Northern Ireland Science Park and has provided £26 million to support the establishment of 17 Centres of Research Excellence, the majority of which are focused on high technology sectors. In addition, Invest NI has been highly active in drawing up a series of sector strategies aimed at maximising the economic development potential for a range of sectors including hi-technology and telecommunications.
These excellent first year achievements offer a very sound platform on which Invest NI can build in the future. They demonstrate the success of the measures which Invest NI has developed to provide support schemes and programmes which are both comprehensive and sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of existing businesses and entrepreneurs in a wide range of industrial sectors, including hi-technology and telecommunications.