Economic Development Forum meets to discuss strategies

Dr Seán Farren, Minister for Employment and Learning, has co-chaired the tenth meeting of the Economic Development Forum (EDF), which took place in Ballymena, with Bruce Robinson, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI).

The Forum, which consists of representatives of the major social partner organisations, provides advice to Ministers on matters affecting the development and future competitiveness of the Northern Ireland economy.

At the meeting the Forum exchanged views on the development of medium term strategic priorities for the Northern Ireland economy. These have been developed from the key themes in the Northern Ireland Executive’s Programme for Government; Strategy 2010; the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee’s Report on Strategy 2010 and the study by the Northern Ireland Economic Council on Capabilities and Innovation Perspective for Northern Ireland.

Other topics discussed at the meeting included progress reports on the work of the Employability Taskforce and the Regional Transportation Strategy.

Paying tribute to the many organisations contributing to the work of the Employability Taskforce, Dr Farren said: “Good progress continues to be made in this area. The Taskforce, which has met on six occasions, has completed a series of some 30 engagement meetings involving 245 individuals from 165 organisations, representative of the trades unions, voluntary and disabled sectors, minority ethnic groups and women’s groups.

“Around 2,100 discussion documents with questionnaires have been circulated to over 470 organisations enabling them to make a measured response for consideration. These responses are now being considered and will facilitate the preparation of an Action Plan which will integrate actions across Government Departments and agencies by next spring.” (SP)