Trade and Business JC 30 June 2010

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1. The eleventh North South Ministerial Council meeting in Trade and Business Development sectoral format was held in the NSMC Joint Secretariat Offices, Armagh on Wednesday 30 June 2010.   The meeting was attended by Batt O’Keeffe, TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Arlene Foster, MLA, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment and Conor Murphy, MP, MLA, Minister for Regional Development. Minister O’Keeffe chaired the meeting.

2. The Chairperson of InterTradeIreland, Dr David Dobbin, provided an update on InterTradeIreland’s strategic priorities for the Body’s next Corporate Plan for the period 2011-2013.

3. The Chief Executive of InterTradeIreland, Liam Nellis, presented a progress report on InterTradeIreland’s performance and business activities including:

4. The Council approved InterTradeIreland’s 2010 Business Plan and noted its plans to identify and help realise opportunities to improve competitiveness, generate economic growth and create sustainable quality jobs through increased levels of trade and co-operation on innovation and business development opportunities.

5. Ministers received a presentation on the InterTradeIreland Quarterly Business Monitor and noted the useful information it provided on the impact of recent economic developments on the private sector, the shape of the recovery and competitiveness issues.

6. Ministers discussed a presentation on Co-operation on Innovation.  They noted the collaborative work by Enterprise Ireland, Invest NI and InterTradeIreland to identify possible sources of additional funding for innovation programmes and to gain access to research institute resources. They noted the approval of five proposals with a total value of €12m/£10.7m under the US Ireland R&D Partnership and plans to allow an expansion of the Partnership topics to include telecommunications and energy research. They also noted that InterTradeIreland will carry out an analysis of the innovation ecosystem.

7. Ministers noted that InterTradeIreland’s draft accounts for 2009 have been submitted to the Comptrollers and Auditors General in both jurisdictions.