Northern Ireland woos Indian companies

Peter Hain said that Northern Ireland offered unique advantages to knowledge-based industries from India.

By offering benefits to investors such as availability of educated people, communication infrastructure and attractive incentive packages, the island will also be a gateway to the rest of the European market.

"We offer lower business taxes compared to other European countries. Our economy is stable over the last 10 years with low inflation and higher employment and the living cost is substantially lower than London.

The availability of skilled people is the most important advantage that we offer," he said.

Northern Ireland was the first region in Europe to offer 100 per cent broadband coverage and a number of companies from the island had set up shops in India, he pointed out.

He added that the Polaris tie-up was a partnership agreement and companies from India could set up operations in Northern Ireland through a variety of options.

He also said that the Indian IT company, HCL, which started its operations five years ago, had grown from 300 people to about 2000. HCL is reported to have invested close to $16 million in Northern Ireland.