Northern Ireland desperately needs “to build a culture of enterprise and tackle divisions in our society”, according to NI Conservatives’ spokesman, Mark Brotherston. Mark made his comments after statistics showed that Belfast produced the lowest number of new businesses, per head of the population, across 64 UK cities and had some of the worst economic indicators. The survey included areas close to Belfast, such as Lisburn, Castlereagh, Carrickfergus and North Down.
“These statistics obviously don’t reflect some of the brilliant qualities which Belfast and its surrounding areas have, but it does show that there are serious issues of concern”, Mark said. “In particular, we’re simply not seeing enough people starting up new businesses. That’s a problem for which the Executive has to take a large share of responsibility.”
“It simply hasn’t put in place the policies to build a culture of enterprise and entrepreneurship in Northern Ireland. It hasn’t been giving business the tools that it needs, by cutting red tape, creating enterprise zones and offering incentives to export goods abroad. There’s not sufficient emphasis on skills and fostering entrepreneurs in the education system. Northern Ireland is still far too reliant on public sector jobs and the private sector is far too small.”
“There’s also the continuing difficulty of having a divided society, which damages prosperity and wastes huge amounts of money that could otherwise be spent on services and creating jobs. If these issues were resolved, huge quantities of cash could be freed up to really start driving Belfast forward. The city would move rapidly up the rankings if we could genuinely start tackling division and build a culture of enterprise, because the people of Northern Ireland certainly have the raw talents and the drive to succeed.”