Foster told to give SMEs priority over foreign investment

From the Belfast Telegraph last week. Which sort of backs up what I'd been harping on about for a while. The quote from Alasdair McDonnell (SDLP, South Belfast) was hitting certains nails on certain heads:

“I would appeal to Invest NI in particular to nurture and support in every way that it can local existing and perhaps new small and medium enterprises rather than chasing a rainbow as it where, or the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow, in terms of foreign direct investment that isn't there at the minute.”

So in the space of a week Invest NI has put just over £8.5m into call centres in a three year plan to create 1510 jobs (610 for Newry with Teleperformance and 900 with Gem) so that equates to £5629.13 to create per job. My argument is that it would create 8500 start ups on the SABP if you gave them a proper grant of £1000 to get started.

My second argument is: the downturn is far from over. Suppliers are seeing customers reduce spending and shelve projects. Do the likes of Teleperformance and Gem have a sustainable order book for the next three years to warrant spending £8.5m of other peoples money? Would the banks loaned them the money under the current climate, probably not, or at least not without firm commitments from customers in the form of letters of intent or mandates.

Lest we forget the failures: Auditor slams IDB's role in failed Valence factory

Once Invest NI see past the golden press release and start to invest in the people who want to start businesses, you'll see the jobless figures go down and give people the incentive to start up on their own, potentially with a view to taking on staff in the future.

This has to start somewhere and soon.