Lord Mayor Leads Trade And Investment Delegation To Nashville

Belfast Lord Mayor, Arder Carson, has led a delegation to Nashville to further develop trade and investment education, tourism links between the two Sister Cities.

The delegation included representatives from Ulster University, Invest NI, Tourism Ireland, StartplanetNI, an accelerator start up company, and the Panarts Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival.

The Lord Mayor said of the importance of the visit: "Belfast has extremely strong historical connections with Nashville. We signed our Sister City Agreement 20 years ago, and at that time the links were through music and culture.

"Now, the exciting connections are in trade and investment, education and tourism. I feel it is important that we continue to nurture and develop these links to the benefit of our city and our people, by using visits such as this to profile Belfast in the international marketplace."

The key opportunities the delegation explored were:

• trade and investment through technology, healthcare and creative industry sectors

• tourism links with the Nashville Convention Bureau

• developing links between Ulster University and Belmont University; and

• the ongoing partnership and exchanges between Queen's University and Vanderbilt University.

During the visit, the Lord Mayor also met with delegates from Nashville who will be attending the Sister Cities Summit in Belfast and Dublin from 19 – 23 April.

(MH)