Taoiseach Brian Cowen and British prime minister Gordon Brown are attending an investment conference in Belfast today where they will make a pitch to 120 US business executives outlining the merits of investing in the North.
They will join First Minister, the Rev Ian Paisley, and Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, at Parliament Buildings to address the senior executives - including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg - who are attending the US-Northern Ireland investment conference.
In his acceptance speech after being elected as Taoiseach in the Dáil yesterday, Mr Cowen emphasised the need to strengthening the Republic's links with Northern Ireland and Britain.
"Consolidating the peace through economic development and mutual understanding will have my full engagement and wholehearted support," he said.
"[Today's] conference is a timely reminder that our destiny on this island cannot be secured in isolation from the rest of the world. We share too much from history and culture with our neighbouring island not to work for the deepest friendship and the most fruitful engagement. Our economic success on this island owes much to the strength and depth of our relationship with the United States, both through the very many investors who have found here a successful partner for investment, and through the scale of the trading relationship between the two economies," Mr Cowen said.
The two leaders flew into Belfast City Airport earlier this afternoon and had an initial conversation over lunch.
They are due to address the US executives in the old Senate chamber of Parliament Buildings in Stormont later this afternoon. They will tell them how the peace process and the devolved government at Stormont have produced political stability and laid the foundations for economic growth.
Dr Paisley and Mr McGuinness will then engage in a question-and-answer session with the executives.
First Minister the Rev Ian Paisley said the conference was an opportunity to showcase Northern Ireland as an investment location to some of the world's most prestigious companies.
"Today is a good news day for us. We had good news yesterday and we have good news today. We are on the right road and will keep right on to the end of the road and see Ulster prosperous."
As delegates gathered for the conference, NYSE Euronext announced it was expanding local financial software company Wombat, which it bought for £100 million (€127 million) in March.
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) chief executive Duncan Niederauer said it would be increasing the workforce from 100 to 175 through a £5 million (€6.4 million) investment. The jobs would be in place by 2010.
Wombat specialises in the development of advanced software solutions for global financial markets. Its products are used to transmit stock exchange data around financial institutions at high speed so that rapid trading decisions can be made.
The latest jobs boost follows the announcement last night by Canadian aerospace company Bombardier that it is investing £70 million (€89 million) in its Belfast plant where it will build a large part of a new 100-seat regional jet.
That announcement was preceded by CyberSource, which handles billions of pounds-worth of internet payments, saying it will recruit 56 software development graduates for a new research and development centre in Belfast.