Northern Ireland has much to learn from the phenomenal growth of the Irish economy, Minister of Finance and Personnel, Mark Durkan, has told an international finance conference.

Speaking at Money, Macro and Finance Research Group’s Annual three-day conference at Queen’s University Belfast on Thursday, Mr Durkan also warned that the local economy would be sidelined if it didn’t gather and use information or embrace e-commerce.

He said: “I, along with my Executive colleagues, am keen to develop Northern Ireland as a significant hub of academic excellence and conferences such as this, with distinguished delegates from around the world, can only help to achieve that goal.

“Like many others, we have been fascinated by the phenomenal growth record of the Southern Irish economy in recent years. If truth be told, we are more than a little envious of this achievement and are very keen to see what we might learn from their experience.”

On the issue of the ‘New Economy’, which embraces the creation, management, analysis and communication of information, the Minister said the Executive was doing all it could to work with the private sector to develop a world class telecommunications infrastructure in terms of broad band capacity, access and cost.

He added: “It has been clear for some time that in the present economic and technological context, information is the prime commodity and unless we are positioned to access and use information our economy will become increasingly sidelined.

“The evidence is that there are significant gains to be had from the greater utilisation of e-commerce to improve productivity, efficiency and the cost and speed of delivery of products and services.

“We will also ensure as far as possible that our citizens have access to the education and training that will allow them to function successfully in this new environment.” (MB)