US ambassador Mr Richard Egan has said that job creation in the North represents the most effective solution to continuing difficulties in the peace process. Mr Egan said: "Loyalist alienation is clearly a factor" in current problems, and urged all sides to realise that "the peace process is not a zero-sum game."
He said the "continuing sectarian divide" could only be addressed if all sides believed that they could benefit from stability. "All can win - in fact, all must win if the process is to succeed," he said. "Job creation is something I know and I know it works."
Mr Egan added that it had been unfortunate in the past that job creation had mirrored sectarian divisions. He was addressing a business lunch organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Dublin.
The tremendous success of the US relationship with the Republic offered useful lessons for jobs and prosperity in the North, Mr Egan said. He pointed out that a "sentimental" partnership had been transformed to a situation where 585 US businesses were successfully operating in the Republic, employing 70,000 people in a €30 billion investment. The ambassador said the Republic now accounted for 25 per cent of all new US greenfield investment.
He told the assembled business leaders that more than 100 US companies employed about 22,000 workers in the North, but that more business activity was needed. "There is additional room for investment," he said, adding that sectors such as telecommunications and tourism presented particularly attractive investment opportunities.
"Economic growth leads to prosperity. Prosperity brings peace and a better quality of life to ourselves, our children and our grandchildren," Mr Egan said. Earlier, he paid tribute to Irish/American comradeship following last September's terrorist attacks.
On the subject of world trade, he said that the aftermath of September 11th had proved the political and economic security of the transatlantic community were indivisible. But he added that President Bush's government had concerns regarding a continuing "EU superstition" about varieties of biotechnically-enhanced crops produced in the US.
Such a stance represented a "threat to global commodity trade", according to Mr Egan, who added that the construction of barriers against trade in this area would be a "tragedy, especially for developing countries". "I'm confident that our shared values of democracy and the rule of law will prevail," he said.
