THE NORTHERN Ireland Executive proudly announced two fruits of the Washington Investment Conference before it had even started at the US State Department yesterday morning.
Terex, a US-based company which has been present in Northern Ireland for 11 years, will spend £1.7 million (€1.94 million) to establish its European global services centre in Belfast, creating 35 new skilled jobs.
Dow Chemical, the $45 billion US giant and a newcomer to Northern Ireland, will invest more than £1 million to establish its European supply chain services centre in Northern Ireland, creating 25 jobs for graduates.
Terex is typical of the more than 70 per cent of foreign companies in Northern Ireland who reinvest, said Minister for Enterprise Arlene Foster.
The company is a global manufacturer of construction materials, and already employs more than 1,000 people in Dungannon and Omagh. Terex’s decision followed a “comprehensive review of other sites across Europe”, Ms Foster noted.
Ronald DeFeo, the chief executive of Terex, travelled to Washington along with 15 other top executives from US companies which are already present in Northern Ireland to convince dozens of other potential investors to follow their example.
Mr DeFeo said Terex decided to locate its European centre in the North because of its qualified people, friendly atmosphere and infrastructure. He also praised the attitude of the government.
Dow’s decision to base a European supply chain in Belfast grew out of a dinner at Stormont last June, said Darrell Zavitz, vice-president of supply chain. “We move 130 billion pounds of product through 200 countries every year. Twenty per cent of our product crosses borders,” he said.
Mr Zavitz said Dow was eager to “tap into” the knowledge gained at Queen’s and Ulster universities, the North’s engineering talent, marine supply train and entrepreneurial spirit. “We believe this is only the beginning of our involvement in Northern Ireland,” he said.
Such glowing testimonials continued all afternoon, when the 16 existing investors divided into three clusters: financial services; information and communications technology; and global services. The experienced investors were paired with potential investors.
“It’s less about convincing than it is about educating,” said Benjamin Chrnelich, the chief administrative officer and senior vice-president at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Euronext, which chose to locate what he called its “technology centre of excellence” in Belfast in 2008. “Once potential investors know, they’ll take that decision,” Mr Chrnelich predicted.
In Belfast, the NYSE employs 225 people who focus on “high-end service for global operations . . . They do coding, testing, a lot of software which we use in New York and for our top clients”.
The NYSE came to Belfast almost by chance, when it purchased Wombat Financial, which had 70 employees in Belfast. “Our CEO Duncan Niederauer built strong relations with Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness,” Mr Chrnelich said.
The skills, operating environment and cultural affinity – and the availability of direct flights to London, Paris and Newark, New Jersey – convinced Mr Niederauer to centralise the exchange’s European operations in Belfast. Mr Chrnelich and Mr Niederauer led the financial service cluster.
The conference was organised by Declan Kelly, the financier from Tipperary who was appointed special envoy for the economy of Northern Ireland in September 2009. The dozens of potential investors attending the conference were not named, but most are Fortune 500 companies, representing an aggregate wealth of some $1 trillion.
In addition to Terex and the NYSE, the 15 other veteran investors who sent executives to the conference were: Allstate, AVX Corp, Caterpillar, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Cybersource, Dupont, GE, HBO, Liberty Mutual, Nacco, NaviNet, Seagate, 3 Par and Tyco.
