Ministerial Statement: Economic Strategy

Part of Executive Committee Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 1:15 pm on 17 November 2011.

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Photo of Arlene Foster Arlene Foster DUP 1:15, 17 November 2011

I thank the Member for his question on research and development. I know that he has a particular interest in that field. I thank him and the rest of the Enterprise Committee for the work that they are doing in that area.

Research and development is hugely important for us in the economic circumstances that we find ourselves because the firms that have invested in research and development are the firms that are moving forward, are growing and are able to export their products in a meaningful way. It is critical for an export-led growth strategy to have that research and development behind it.

In recent years, we have experienced an increase in expenditure, particularly business expenditure, on research and development, so much so that last year, we had £344 million spent on research and development, which was the highest figure on record. We come from a lower base than the rest of the UK, but I was very pleased, given the economic circumstances that we found ourselves in, that research and development has been placed high on the agenda of so many of our companies.

There is so much more that we can do to assist, which is why one of the five themes in the Boosting Business initiative is research and development. How can we encourage smaller companies in particular? We know that the smaller companies find it more difficult to engage in research and development — it is a very new concept for them — and, often, in order to access the finance available for research and development, there is a lot of bureaucracy that they have to go through. So, we need to be proactive with those firms and that is what we intend to do through the Boosting Business initiative.