Invest Northern Ireland
Key Competitive Attractions
Invest in Northern Ireland
You will find Northern Ireland is a welcoming region with a wealth of skills in its smart workforce and third-level institutions where the commercial exploitation of research, development and innovation lie at the heart of the academic and skills agenda. These factors, combined with its competitive cost base, and great infrastructure make Northern Ireland a compelling investment proposition, particularly as a nearshore location from which to service large markets.
Financial and Business Services
In recent years, the shift from manufacturing to predominantly tradeable service-based sectors has seen a significant change in projects located within Northern Ireland. Inward investment is now mainly in the innovation-based sectors of internationally traded services, particularly business services and ICT.
Investors from these sectors place an increasing emphasis on locations with qualified labour pools, excellent infrastructure and close proximity to universities or centres of excellence.
More reasons to invest in Northern Ireland...
Assistance and Support For New Business Investors
Northern Ireland offers inward investors one of the most attractive support packages available in Europe, tailor made for each individual investment project.
Assistance to businesses investing in Northern Ireland includes cash grants for capital investments, tax incentives and interest relief plus support for a variety of business operations such as research and development (R&D), training and marketing.
Financial incentives unique to Northern Ireland:
- Revenue grants towards start-up costs, interest relief, factory rental costs, training costs, marketing development costs and R&D expenditure.
- Pre-employment training grants.
- Finance investment in the share capital of a company and the provision of government loans at commercial and concessionary rates.
- R&D capital spending can be written off against income.
- Property tax exemptions for manufacturing property.
- Generous depreciation allowances.
Ongoing Support:
Invest NI`s knowledgeable and experienced executives will provide new and existing investors with advice on every aspect of locating and running a business in the region, from property selection through to maximising financial incentives and recruitment.
Existing Business Base
Northern Ireland has a history of industrial innovation in engineering, aerospace and shipbuilding, and is now very strong in the software, financial services and telecoms sectors. It is also witnessing clusters of excellence emerging in areas such as renewables, life and health sciences.
ICT Ireland
Among the world-class businesses located in Northern Ireland are Seagate Technology Microsoft, DuPont, Bombardier Aerospace, SAP and Caterpillar. Investment and re-investment has also come from these major global corporations: Citi, Liberty, Allstate and Fujitsu.
Outsourcing
Interestingly, Northern Ireland is becoming a major location for Indian corporations seeking to establish a European base, particularly in business process outsourcing with major investments from HCL Technologies, Polaris Software, Firstsource and TechMahindra.
