The executive needs to take action to make Northern Ireland business more competitive, according to NI Conservatives’ economy spokesman, Johnny Andrews.
“On the back of its global competitiveness index, PwC has released statistics which show that Northern Ireland ranks 42nd out of 145 countries, compared to the rest of the OECD”, Johnny explained. “The most significant aspect of this statistic is that we are well below the Republic of Ireland (27) and the UK as a whole (8th). There are clearly serious problems for the executive to address, because we still don’t have enough businesses in the private sector and we still don’t have an entrepreneurial culture, which prioritises exporting goods and services to the rest of the world.”
“Stormont ministers have a range of tools which NI Conservatives have been urging them to use, in order to create jobs and improve exports. Employment laws need urgent reform, in order to make sure that they’re in line with the rest of the UK. Currently we’d rank 112th out of 145 countries in terms of employment flexibility, as against 33rd for the whole of the UK. Then there are powers to create enterprise zones, aimed at encouraging companies to export goods and services, which the executive has stubbornly refused to use.”
“There are continuing issues around skills, with an insufficient emphasis on science, technology and engineering subjects in education and unused money which has been provided by the government to spend on infrastructure. The parties seem to be going backwards on building the shared, stable future which we need to have lasting prosperity and to attract investment from abroad. All these issues need urgent attention, otherwise the executive will continue to preside over a stagnant economy and fail to create new sustainable, private sector jobs for the people of Northern Ireland.”