The North-South implementation body, Waterways Ireland, is to be located in Enniskillen, which is good news for the Fermanagh town. It is estimated that at least 30 people will be employed when it is fully established.
Unlike a number of the other bodies, no board is to be appointed to Waterways Ireland, which will be headed by a chief executive. It will also have a number of regional offices, one of which will be at Carrick-on-Shannon.
The director of Fermanagh Business Initiative, Mr Eamon Cox, said the decision to locate the body in Enniskillen was seen as "a vote of confidence" in the town.
"As a Border town, it was appropriate to choose Enniskillen and, in conjunction with Fermanagh District Council, we had put the case over 12 months ago for some public service jobs to be moved here," Mr Cox said.
"This is very, very significant and we see it as the first step in the right direction, because for too long government jobs were being moved from Enniskillen," he said.
Mr Cox said that until now there had been a mindset in the North that everything had to be centralised in Belfast. "My answer to that mindset is just try it, and see how many people do want to work in the west," he said.
It is expected that some of the jobs will be filled by civil servants already employed in Belfast or Dublin, but that there will also be new job vacancies.
Enniskillen has a population of 14,000 and, due to its location on the Erne, was a natural choice for the waterways body. Along with the Antrim coast, the Fermanagh lake district is one of the main areas for tourism in the North. It has suffered from its proximity to the Border and the political instability of recent years.
Mr Cox said people were now sensing a new era with the start of the Assembly. Enniskillen also did well in having a local Ulster Unionist politician, Mr Sam Foster, appointed Minister for the Environment.
"For the first time, I detect a sense of optimism and confidence. In moving forward with local representation, people feel there will be new opportunities." Mr Tommy Gallagher, a local SDLP Assembly member, said the decision meant Fermanagh would be at the forefront of cross-Border development and he believed there would be very significant economic benefits.