BELFAST BRIEFING:Businesses in the Republic might gain from considering a second location in Newry

Watch out Belfast and Dublin. Not content with being the Mecca for cross Border shoppers on the island the city of Newry is setting its sights on becoming an economic investment centre to rival any location, North or South.

Last week Newry’s top cheerleading team staged a stealth marketing event in one of Dublin’s top hotels. Invited guests to the private event were treated to a glimpse of what Newry has to offer the unsuspecting investor.

They heard about the city’s unrivalled role as the obvious meeting point between the cities of Dublin and Belfast. They also heard about its young, talented population, not to mention its competitive property propositions and its access to high speed broadband and a fibre optic network.

The hard sell was that Newry has something unique to offer companies based in the Republic of Ireland that they will not find anywhere else on the island.

But it also was not a hard sell to encourage companies from the Republic to pull up their roots and relocate entirely across the Border. The team behind the self styled “Opportunity Newry” campaign are not saying that every business on the island should go and locate in the city and surrounding area.

But what they are keen to emphasis are the advantages that businesses currently operating in the Republic of Ireland might gain from considering a second location. “Team Newry” believe that compared to other parts of the island the city can boast cost of labour advantages and fiscal opportunities which make it a worthwhile proposition.

If all sounds a bit too good to be true particularly in these recession-sceptic times then there is one man who is determined to convince even the unbelievers that the city of Newry is emerging as an economic force to be reckoned with.

Step up to the podium Dr Gerard O’Hare, the man who can claim a large share of the credit for helping turn Newry into the euro-fuelled shopping attraction it is today. His company, Parker Green International owns the Quay’s Shopping Centre in Newry, a destination which attracts millions of consumers from the Republic each year.

But O’Hare is keen to stress that Newry is not just about retail although he admits its reputation as a shopping destination has helped put the once Troubles black spot on the map for all the right reasons. He says “I think that it has been a positive we now have more retail visitors to Newry than Euro Disney has in a year. It shows Newry is a very open city, a very welcoming city but the retail success is on the back of exchange rates.”

Together with a number of other high profile Newry-born and Newry-passionate businessmen and women he is leading the charge to establish the city as the alternative investment location on the island.

O’Hare states: “We believe as a cohesive Newry economic force that there are advantages to be earned from more integration and collaboration on both sides of the Border, from business going North and South. Newry as a gateway has opportunities and advantages to offer existing businesses in Ireland.”

What is unusual about the Opportunity Newry initiative is that it is pretty much a private-led campaign.

Although it is supported by statutory agencies such as Invest NI it is mainly the work of local people who have a vested interested in creating a new economic future for the city and who have decided on a course of action.

It is early days but it is the type of initiative which might inspire other areas in the North to become masters of their own economic fate rather than leaving it in the hands of, for example, the Executive.

Many of Team Newry can still remember when the city, then a town, was shunned by investors and shoppers alike, when bomb scares were the order of the day and rabid unemployment scarred a generation.

As O’Hare puts it: “That which represented our difficulties in the past being a frontier, Border location is now our advantage – half way between Belfast and Dublin. We are sitting pivotal to take advantage of the economic differentials of both economies, sitting central to the entire population of the island.”

For the Newry-born successful businessman in his own right he shares a belief that the city can play an important role in creating a common ground for businesses on both sides of the Border.

“Newry is an obvious gateway to Republic of Ireland companies who want to take advantage of being in a sterling market, who want to expand into new NI market and who perhaps want to use NI as a springboard into UK markets which is 60 million people right on your doorsteps,” he states.

He says that Newry naturally wants to benefit directly from new investment in its area.

But O’Hare also believes that if the city can play a role in helping Republic of Ireland businesses become “more competitive on the international scene then we make our island economy more competitive and that is what is important to us in the future.”

According to O’Hare and the Team Newry campaign this is a “win-win” proposition.