Positioning Northern Ireland for long-term success
New Invest Northern Ireland’s Chief Executive Kieran Donoghue discusses his initial impressions and strategic vision for the agency.
Northern Ireland is a region characterised by resilience, innovation, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and deep attachment to places and community. These qualities have been evident in every interaction that I have had since starting the position of Chief Executive at Invest Northern Ireland, whether with family-owned businesses like agri-food company Davison Canners near Armagh, which has successfully navigated the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and energy crises, or with multinational firms such as Seagate in Derry~Londonderry, a global leader in its industry.
The spirit of entrepreneurship and the drive to succeed are clearly evident across the business landscape, making it an exciting time to be at the helm of Invest NI.
Early impressions and highlights
Locally, a significant highlight and focus of my first six months has been my engagements with our clients, local business organisations, councils, chambers, enterprise agencies, and other key stakeholders across the region. These engagements have been crucial for understanding the diverse needs and aspirations of the communities we serve.
Every meeting, visit, or event has been a real learning opportunity.
By listening to the challenges faced by businesses and the strategic goals of partner organisations, I am confident that Invest NI can tailor its support, build partnerships, and work together to deliver a stronger, more resilient economy that benefits all.
Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of my past six months at Invest NI, was the recent programme for the St Patrick’s Day events in the United States, where the opportunity to spend time with the First and deputy First Ministers, Economy Minister Conor Murphy MLA, and their advisors was invaluable.
This visit was about showcasing Northern Ireland as a prime destination for investment and innovation. The positive reception Northern Ireland received highlights the strong interest in our economic potential.
Similarly, I recently had the opportunity to attend the Farnborough Airshow, a premier global aerospace and defence event. Northern Ireland has a strong aviation heritage, and our companies continue to demonstrate their commitment to innovation, continuous improvement and product and service quality. Invest NI supported 11 companies to attend the trade exhibition and showcase Northern Ireland’s commitment to engineering excellence on an international stage and to help them access new markets. The deputy First Minister led our delegation at Farnborough, and this highlighted the strategic importance of the sector to our region’s economy.
Supporting future economic growth
Invest NI is an organisation with a proud record of achievement and plays a vital role in economic development across Northern Ireland. This success is underpinned by the dedication and expertise of our team, who work to support businesses to expand their operations, access new markets, and drive innovation.
The team at Invest NI has consistently delivered impactful results, positioning Northern Ireland as a trusted business partner and as a competitive and attractive location for investment by both indigenous companies and multinational enterprises. Our recent End of Year results underscore this commitment.
In 2023/24, Invest NI offered £93 million of support to locally owned businesses with 76 per cent of the companies supported located outside Belfast. This demonstrates our ongoing commitment to promoting regional economic balance.
Investing in research and development (R&D) and innovation is a necessity to achieve sustained growth and competitiveness and in 2023/24 we helped 520 businesses to invest £111 million in R&D and innovation across the region.
Additionally, our Ambition to Grow programme, launched in late 2022, is specifically designed with regionally based micro and small business in mind. In 2023/24 we had over 270 applications to the programme. This support will help these companies create new jobs, explore new markets, and develop new products, processes, and skills.
We also launched a new £5 million programme called FounderLabs. Targeted at tech start-ups, it aims to provide support to 40 high growth innovation driven enterprises. Technology-based companies are crucial to our economy as they grow our R&D base and have high-growth potential which can lead to above average salaries and enhanced living standards for all.
Our 2023 key performance indicators (KPIs) also show a strong increase across sales, external sales, and exports among the businesses we supported, with agri-food and advanced engineering and manufacturing recording the largest increase in sales.
As a result of our trade support this year we have helped companies generate over £240 million of new external sales. Since 2021 the monetary value of the outcomes of our trade support has reached over £0.5 billion – a phenomenal figure which is testament to the work of our international teams.
In short, there is a tremendously strong platform for us to build upon into the future.
“The spirit of entrepreneurship and the drive to succeed are clearly evident across the business landscape, making it an exciting time to be at the helm of Invest NI.”
Strategic vision for the future
We are currently in the process of finalising our new three-year business strategy which we are aligning strongly to the Minister for the Economy’s four policy priorities: raising productivity, creating good jobs, achieving stronger regional balance, and driving the transition to net zero. These policy priorities are the guiding principles that will shape our efforts and initiatives over the coming years.
Productivity is a fundamental economic driver, and this will be at the core of our new business strategy through investment in plant and equipment, automation, innovation, digitisation, skills development and increased exports. Our interventions will be structured and aligned with recognised productivity drivers which have been designed to reflect the UK’s productivity drivers and the drivers of those identified in the Northern Ireland productivity dashboard.
In this context, our recently launched £46 million Agri-Food Investment Initiative will support local agri-food and drink processors to help improve the overall competitiveness and productivity of the sector in Northern Ireland. We will introduce other similar productivity enhancing interventions to address specific sectoral and regional needs across Northern Ireland.
Our strategy will also focus on the green economy. Northern Ireland is already leveraging its recognised expertise in engineering, technology, and construction to win market share in low carbon and net zero markets. Significantly, 60 per cent of our manufacturing companies are already selling into the green economy and generating £1.5 billion in turnover and £230 million in exports.
To support our green economy and low carbon ambitions, we recently launched a £20 million Energy Support Fund to help businesses to reduce their carbon emissions and improve their competitiveness through investment in energy and resource efficiency. This support will ensure that Northern Ireland is an ideal partner for international investors to capitalise on global net zero opportunities and to drive impactful economic growth.
Our commitment to regional balance will be another area of focus in our strategy. We are currently finalising a new Regional Property Programme to ensure that Invest NI can offer existing clients and new investors the real estate necessary to establish a new business or to expand existing operations. This programme will be a key enabler of our regional development strategy and help drive economic growth in all parts of Northern Ireland.
We are also working with our partners to ignite regional economic growth through the ambitious City and Growth Deal projects, which offer a transformational opportunity to deliver more and better jobs and a more balanced distribution of economic activity across the region.
Our new strategy will emphasise that, to deliver these desired policy outcomes, Invest NI will need to work even more closely with client companies, new investors, and key stakeholders to incentivise and enable more investment and innovation. This will involve co-designing and delivering a range of initiatives encompassing capital investment, R&D, and innovation, training and upskilling, product, and process improvements and sustainability initiatives.
Collaboration and partnerships will be key to achieving our goals. We are working closely with universities, colleges, councils, and other stakeholders to ensure that our efforts are coordinated and effective.
Transforming Invest NI
The ongoing transformation within Invest NI is not just about new strategies and initiatives; it is also about addressing the findings of the Independent Review and associated Action Plan. Several significant actions will be completed this year.
The Review provided the organisation with valuable insights into areas where we can improve, particularly in terms of our operational efficiency and the effectiveness of our engagement with client companies.
One of the key areas identified for improvement was our operating model and internal processes. The review highlighted the fact that some of our procedures were overly bureaucratic, making it difficult for businesses to navigate our support systems. In response, we are undertaking a comprehensive review of our policies, procedures, and processes to make them more user-friendly and efficient. This includes digitising our processes, investing in a new client portal, and pioneering a new, faster, and more flexible approach to internal innovation. Our goal is to ensure that we can support our clients effectively while meeting our governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) requirements as custodians of public funds.
Another significant area of focus is our organisational structure. The new strategy will serve as the basis for a restructuring of Invest NI to ensure that we are configured appropriately to execute our strategic objectives.
The Independent Review also underscored the importance of Invest NI leading by example. If we are going to ask our clients to invest and innovate, we must be willing to do the same. This commitment to innovation is reflected in our internal transformation efforts, where we are actively seeking to identify and address inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
“The transformation we are undertaking is not just about meeting immediate goals but is also about changing our mindset and about positioning Northern Ireland for long-term success.”
Navigating the global economic landscape
The global economic environment is increasingly volatile, with new industrial policies and geopolitical risks reshaping the investment landscape. As we develop our strategy, we are mindful of these challenges and the need to position Northern Ireland favourably within this context.
The volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) model developed by professors Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus serves as a useful framework for understanding the current international environment.
We are seeing a significant increase in more interventionist industrial policies, such as the United States’ new manufacturing and innovation strategy and the European Union’s Chips Act and Green Deal. The US, for example, is proposing to invest more than $3.5 trillion over the next decade. If sustained, this strategy will crowd-in private investment into clean energy and technological innovation in strategic industries and transport infrastructure.
The combined effect of the policies being adopted by these large markets is to reshape the structure and geography of investment through the provision of bigger incentives, increasing capital intensity of production, the localisation/regionalisation of supply-chains and the channelling of investment into preferred sectors such as semiconductors, life sciences, and renewable energy. Northern Ireland will have to adapt to these realities from both a trade and FDI perspective to remain competitive and attractive for further investment.
One of the most significant changes we are observing is the shift in language around trade and investment. Terms like “de-globalisation”, “friend-shoring”, “resilience”, and “strategic autonomy” are becoming more prevalent, reflecting the increasing importance of geopolitical and security considerations in investment decision-making. This shift presents both challenges and opportunities for Northern Ireland. For example, our aerospace, defence, and security sectors could potentially benefit from these developments.
Similarly, the local operating environment in Northern Ireland presents its own set of challenges and opportunities. With limited fiscal space, full employment, low population growth, skill shortages in certain areas, and capacity issues in education, we must find ways to grow our economy despite these constraints. This will require a focus on improving productivity, increasing the efficient use of existing resources, and exploiting opportunities such as the unique dual market access that we provide companies through the Windsor Framework.
Looking ahead: Building on momentum
The more I see the more optimistic I am about the direction in which Invest NI is heading. The substantial progress that we have made over the past six months is just the beginning. We are establishing the foundation for a more focused, efficient, and effective organisation that is better equipped to support Northern Ireland’s businesses and drive economic growth.
The transformation we are undertaking is not just about meeting immediate goals but is also about changing our mindset and about positioning Northern Ireland for long-term success. This includes capitalising on our strengths in the green economy, improving regional balance, and ensuring that we are ready to navigate the complexities of the global economic landscape.
At Invest NI, we are committed to working closely with our clients, stakeholders, and partners to harness the momentum we have built and to continue driving forward. Certainly, from what I have seen, heard, and experienced in my early months, I am confident that by working together we can achieve our shared vision of a regionally balanced, sustainable, productive and prosperous economy that benefits all.
W: www.investni.com
T: 0800 181 4422
