Mr. Aidan Gough:

Before I talk about that, I agree we have come a long way in the 14 or 15 years InterTradeIreland has been operating. When we started off, we found the biggest barrier to fulfilling the remit we were given was that the business and university communities basically did not know each other. The networks one would expect in an area with a Border the size of ours did not exist. We have spent a lot of time developing those networks and as we have developed them, it has become clear that a host of new opportunities are coming about as a result. We are facilitating those opportunities so that they deliver value for both economies. For example, in the area of public procurement, last week over 1,000 business came together to look at opportunities to enter the all-island public procurement market. We had buyers and SMEs from all over the island at this event.

We have also seen clearly from other research that the Border is an opportunity in itself to help develop the export potential of the economy. We know exports are driving growth and we also know, from our research, that 70% of exporters from this island took their first step into the export market by exporting into the other jurisdiction. There is a clear pathway therefore for InterTradeIreland to help increase the export potential of the two economies by providing more SMEs with experience of exporting.

The OECD report in which we have been involved looked at cross-Border co-operation in the area of innovation. We are one of six regions examined. The final draft of the report is not available until publication some time in November but it highlights the importance of cross-Border innovation ecosystems and the potential that can come from operating on a cross-Border basis, in terms of the resources it opens up to firms within the two regions.