A £290m plan to help the North of Ireland’s economy recover from the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic has been unveiled.
The 29-page document is wide-ranging with four key areas.
They are skills, research and development, green recovery and investment, trade and exports.
The labour market has been hugely affected by Covid which is why the document states there must be the skilled workforce needed to meet changing demand.
Economy Minister Diane Dodds said that as the North moves slowly back to normality, “we must put all our efforts into restarting, repairing and rebuilding our economy”.
The plan includes ideas like amending the age criteria for apprenticeships so that more people can apply, as well as increasing the maximum number of students in Northern Ireland by 5% over the next 3 years.
It also includes two initiatives announced last year – a high street voucher scheme to support “bricks and mortar” businesses which was delayed, and a “Holiday at Home” voucher scheme to boost the tourism sector.
Neither scheme has been given a date as it will depend on the progression of the virus and when the executive decides to re-open the economy.
The document says the Department for the Economy will “push for a permanent and complete solution to end frictions brought about by the protocol”.
CBI NI Director Angela McGowan said: “Businesses want to up-skill and re-skill workers, they want to be more productive and they want to sell into other markets and this is the ticket to do it.
“Now we’ve got the recovery plan, I suppose the implementation is the hard part, but we all have to come together to make sure it happens.”
Hotels across the North still closed to the public
CEO NI Tourism Alliance Joanne Stuart said: “I think we are all realistic that it’s going to be at least a few more months before we see the opening up of tourism.”
She added: “We have a huge opportunity for the GB market given we are on the same vaccination programme, we will have to see about the Republic of Ireland, they are planning significant progress on their roll out.
“We will be the same as last year – it is definitely the home markets. We will not see international travel open up before the end of this summer season so the message is ‘stay local and support your local tourism providers’.”
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