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Press Release

FSB Reaction to Northern Ireland Investment Strategy

14 December 2005

The Federation of Small Businesses has today welcomed the focused ten year approach to public capital infrastructure expenditure as outlined in the Investment Strategy by the Secretary of State at Lisburn Library this morning.

Wilfred Mitchell, FSB Policy Chairman said:

“The FSB believes that Public Private Partnerships have a role in improving the quality of our public services, however, the problem we envisage is the size and scale of the new procurement contracts under the Investment Strategy will exclude SME’s which make up 99.98% of all business in the local economy”

“The challenge is to ensure that procurement policies are more efficient, however, this must involve contracts within the local market. We intend to encourage the Strategic Investment Board to take steps to ensure local companies have the opportunity to win contracts”

“The SIB must avoid bundling contracts into mega-projects that result in prohibitively large contracts that no company in N. Ireland could serve. Prime contractors must use techniques that advance SME subcontracting so that all can benefit from this investment”

“We share the Secretary of States vision of a world class Northern Ireland, but this can only be achieved in reducing the burdens on the business community which will allow real growth in our Private Sector”



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Federation of Small Businesses

Federation of Small Businesses

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