BELFAST BRIEFING:IS IT being unrealistic or overly optimistic to expect to attract new high-tech companies to locate in the North over the next 12 months? Not according to the chairman of the Northern Ireland Science Park (NISP).

Frank Hewitt believes that, despite the continuing global economic slowdown, the science park will attract new investment to its facilities at Queen’s Island in Belfast this year. NISP “expects a growth in tenant companies who in turn will create new employment opportunities”.

NISP was conceived more than 10 years ago after the first ceasefires. Then chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown announced an economic package which would provide funding to develop the North’s first not-for-profit science park.

More than a decade and over £70 million later NISP is now a 24-acre site with state of the art facilities and telecommunications. It is home to more than 40 organisations from small start-ups to international financial services companies. It has been estimated that the science park generates nearly £60 million each year.

NISP has also helped secure research projects and created a high-tech entrepreneurial culture.

The science park marries Belfast’s industrial legacy with its knowledge-based ambitions. High-tech buildings such as White Star House, named after the owners of the Titanic, acknowledge the past. But its occupants, Citigroup, who have located its Northern Ireland Technology Centre of Excellence, reflect where NISP wants to take the North’s economy.

The science park has not only created the physical structures for high-tech entrepreneurial culture to flourish but it has also generated an environment to deliver important support projects such as Halo, the North’s business network programme, and NISP Connect, which acts as an “honest broker” introducing people, technology and capital to one another.

In the last 10 years, the government-sponsored science park has been a driving force in assisting many small start-up companies make the leap from being a paper dream to becoming a reality. It has also secured significant international investment from Citigroup, Meridio and Microsoft.

But perhaps, 10 years down the line, it is also fair to ask whether NISP has really delivered on its early potential.

When Gordon Brown officially opened the science park in June 2006, he stressed the importance of science, creativity and innovation as a key source of “future prosperity for the people of Northern Ireland”. He spoke of the potential that a “world-class science park” could have in creating new opportunities for talented graduates.

There are about 1,500 people employed in the science park. Its achievements should not be reduced to simply employment numbers but neither should the jobs created in the three years since it officially opened be ignored either.

Last year details of a ground-breaking deal were announced which linked the science park with Dublin’s financial services centre. Companies could set up subsidiaries in the science park to take advantage of Northern Ireland’s abundant skills base while still enjoying the tax benefits afforded to organisations in the Republic.

It was estimated that this deal could create 9,000 new jobs. Nearly 12 months later and notwithstanding a global financial crisis how many of these jobs have been created? The answer is none.

There have been “definite inquiries” which down the line may translate into jobs. Is this a lost opportunity? Would there have been a chance to negotiate a deal like this in 2006 for the science park when there was a much different economic climate?

As the chairman of NISP Hewitt’s forecast for 2009 is remarkably upbeat given the climate. Particularly as the regional economic development agency, Invest NI, has warned that the global economic turmoil has had a dire impact on attracting new investment.

What makes Mr Hewitt so confident that the science park will buck the trend? He is a firm believer that it is head and shoulders above its competitors. The science park promotes “flexibility and connectivity” as two of its most attractive features.

He said NISP intends to develop more “lettable space” and will “continue to make the case” that Northern Ireland is a great location to do business”. Nobody in the North is going to argue with him on that point but the question now is who outside is listening.