Northern Ireland is anxious to share in the Republic's economic success, and the new government will do everything it can to help cross-Border trade, the North's First Minister Mr David Trimble has said.
Speaking at the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland's annual dinner in Dublin last night, Mr Trimble stressed that Northern unionists had no difficulty with "mutually advantageous co-operation" with the Republic. He said that, when talking to business people, he had been impressed by their willingness and enthusiasm to work closely with neighbouring countries. "We in Northern Ireland have watched with admiration the success your economy has enjoyed over the 1990s and we are eager to learn from, and to share, in that success," he told the gathering. He said there was already significant trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
"In the latest trade figures, Northern Ireland companies exported £710 million [sterling] to the Republic. Even at the beginning of this decade the figure was £437 million. Imports into Northern Ireland from the Republic were even greater, at £823 million in the latest figures," he said.
"The new Northern Ireland government which takes over next year will wish to do whatever is in its power to ensure that there are as few impediments as possible to future expansion of cross-Border trade, just as it will endeavour to maximise the level of exports to all international markets," he said.
The key task in the North was to develop a stronger core of highly productive firms which could support a high standard of living for people there, he said.
"In the long term, we would wish this to become self sustaining, requiring only modest levels of subsidy," Mr Trimble added.
"For too long we have used our peripheral position as an excuse for lagging behind the economic front runners."
Welcoming Mr Trimble, the president of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland Mr Philip O'Reilly said business leaders had a responsibility to assist politicians in implementing the Belfast Agreement. "Business has a particular obligation to assist the process with imaginative strategies to promote economic development North and South and especially in the Border areas," he said.
Many business people had not yet come to terms with the implications of trading in an island economy within European monetary union within a worldwide information society, he said. "The pace of change confronting us is greater than ever before", Mr O'Reilly added. He also made a plea to urban Ireland to understand the current crisis facing farmers. "Farming is probably having its worst year since 1974," he said. "Ill-informed criticism of farmers will offer nothing to the current crisis and can only lead to a widening of the urban-rural divide," he added.
