NR GREER: NI needs to explore its potential
I have not been skiing for 25 years or so, but last weekend I got talked into a weekend in Andorra.
The two things struck me when I reached the busy little mountain resort of Pas de la Casa. Firstly, that skiing is an activity popular with the sort of people who think it is amusing to dress like fluorescent court jesters and tell themselves that it is all so glamorous and crazy, when it is very clearly neither of those things. Secondly, that there are a lot of them; which is why Andorra is an incredibly wealthy place, with one of the lowest levels of poverty in Europe. Incidentally, Andorra is not a member of the EU.
The hotel I stayed in was adorned with photographs of the Bushmills Distillery and misty north Antrim landscapes, and Eamonn Holmes was on the TV, looking serious. This is not particularly unusual. Northern Ireland may be a very small corner of the earth, but for its size it has an unmatched cultural reach through writers, sports people, musicians, actors, artists and photographers.
Though it is notable that no one I have met across Europe recently has any real knowledge or interest in the Titanic, any more than they have for the SS Poseidon.
In business too, Northern Ireland has an impressive international footprint.
Perhaps not as great as when Belfast was one of the great workshops of the Empire, but that legacy maintains.
The few sizeable industrial enterprises that there are know how to make their presence felt overseas: firms such as Wrightbus, FG Wilson and Bushmills are internationally respected brands. Wherever in the world it is a fair bet that sooner or later you will be dealing with someone from Northern Ireland, as they crop up everywhere in multi-national businesses.
The NI Tourist Board has started a new marketing initiative aimed at leveraging our cultural reach. It deserves to be successful. Northern Ireland certainly has a lot more to offer than the Principality of Andorra, which has grown rich on tourism, coupled with a low tax regime.
Perhaps the IDB will take a leaf out of the Tourist Board’s book and look at ways of using Northern Ireland’s international business network and legacy, though for such a campaign to be successful will require the Assembly to get serious about supporting private sector economic development.
It is strange that a country which is capable of reaching out so widely to the world and that produces so many progressive, internationally- minded people, has such a parochial government.
The latest example of the insular and small-minded nature of the local political classes is the indecent haste in which the Assembly rushed to stop the potential exploitation of natural gas reserves in Fermanagh.
I was talking to a Canadian, the chief executive of a global business, over the weekend. Canada is currently amongst the most successful economies in the world, with more jobs than there are potential applicants. Canada’s recent success has been built largely on the exploitation of alternative fossil fuels such as shale oil and gas.
Shale gas extraction generates employment and investment and is also one that rapidly boosts the local economy.
The advantages of competitive energy are a massive boost to the wider economy. Shale gas has also played a major part in helping America recover from the economic downturn.
There are claims that there is enough gas under the ground in Fermanagh to keep Northern Ireland going for half a century. Now whether the numbers stack up or not is open to debate, but there is clearly some potential that should be looked at thoroughly.
However, rather than welcoming the possibility of a massive benefit to Northern Ireland, one that could potentially completely change our economy and society for the better, the Assembly rushed straight in to put a stop on exploration.
Shale gas is extracted by a process known as fracking, basically pulverising the rocks underground to release the gas; and of course the usual menagerie of greenies and NIMBYs are making all sorts of mad claims about earthquakes and water taps being turned into flame throwers. Gas fracking is a rough, messy business but the claims are at best greatly exaggerated.
Here’s a revelation for the folks on the hill: no major economic development is possible without making a bit of a mess and someone unhappy, and pandering to every whacked-out lobby group will only prolong economic stagnation and social depravation.
Had the politicians in Andorra listened to the same sort of serial objectors, they would not have built the resorts, ski-runs or ski-lifts. As a result the people would still be living in the same poverty-stricken medieval conditions that persisted until the mid-20th century.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Belfast
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.