Business confidence in the North goes up "every day the guns remain silent", the US Secretary of Commerce told business and civic leaders in Belfast yesterday. Delivering a keynote address in Belfast's City Hall, Mr William Daley warned that prosperity was essential to secure peace. "You cannot have prosperity without peace and you cannot sustain peace without prosperity," he said.
Mr Daley is leading a high-level delegation of 16 US business leaders to build links with Northern Ireland. He said he hoped to build on the Yes vote in last month's referendum and to encourage people to recognise the importance of economic issues in stimulating the peace.
The North's Industrial Development Board (IDB) has high hopes that Mr Daley's visit will result in greater US investment in the region. His itinerary yesterday included visits to leading firms such as Shorts and CableTel, as well as meetings with IDB executives and the Minister for Economic Development and Security, Mr Adam Ingram.
Already yesterday, Shorts announced the creation of 350 new jobs in a £9 million expansion of its carbon fibre factory at Dunmurray, near Belfast. Accompanying the US Secretary are representatives of companies such as Boeing, Pfizer, Monsanto, General Electric and Motorola.
The virtues of the North's economies, including high education levels, good communications and a skilled workforce, were becoming well-known to the US business community, Mr Daley said. But for too long the region had suffered from "the most serious trade barrier of all" - violence.
Because of this, Americans had developed the perception that the North was a risky place to do business or to visit. Political instability meant that, even if all the other factors were favourable, businesses were inclined to choose other options.
It would take time to change this image. But Mr Daley, who has served as mayor of Chicago, said his home city had succeeded in ridding itself of its own image as a crime-ridden city.
Mr Daley said the companies on the visit employed one million people worldwide, twice the total workforce of Northern Ireland. Their combined sales matched the entire exports from the UK. All now wanted to shine a spotlight on the North.
The delegation travels to Derry today, before visiting Sligo tomorrow.
