Belfast City Council to launch business forum initiative

An initiative to be launched by Belfast City Council on Tuesday evening will aim to help tackle key business issues, such as poor competitiveness, which are barriers against economic growth.

The Business Leaders’ Forum, which will involve many of the province's top firms, will meet for the first time at the City Hall and discussion will centre around recent findings by the Northern Ireland Economic Development Forum (NIDF) which showed that the economic and social conditions in the region are not all conducive to supporting business growth.

The recent NIDF report pointed out that political instability, an over-reliance on the public sector, regulatory barriers on business development and a growing inequality between the richest and poorest in society make doing business a difficult task.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, the Chair of Belfast City Council’s Development (Economic Development) Sub-Committee, Councillor Chris McGimpsey, said: “Belfast is recognized as the key driver in the Northern Ireland economy and the issues highlighted in the research clearly relate to Belfast in particular.

“The Business Leaders’ Forum has been set up to develop a closer working relationship between Belfast City Council and the city’s key employers and to find ways to tackle issues such as poor competitiveness that are currently facing the city.

Mr McGimpsey said that the Forum would also give the council the opportunity to become more informed about the needs of business and to raise awareness among business leaders of the services that council can provide.

These services include the Local Economic Development Plan that will provides £11 million over the next three years to support economic development in the city.

(SP)