Enterprise Policy

Welcome to the Enterprise Policy Website

The draft Economic Strategy details the Executive’s economic priorities to achieve their economic vision for Northern Ireland over the next 20 years of:

‘An economy characterised by a sustainable and growing private sector, where a greater number of firms compete in global markets.’

Collectively the Executive aims to achieve this through rebuilding and rebalancing the economy in the aftermath of a sustained global economic downturn.  Key to rebalancing the economy and achieving sustainable growth will be growing the private sector and making it easier to do business here.  

Enterprise Strategy

We are currently developing an Enterprise Strategy to support the Economic Strategy, which will set out in detail how, via co-ordinated action, we plan to grow a prosperous private sector over the short, medium and longer term.

The Strategy will encompass a clear focus on promoting a culture that values enterprise and creates the necessary conditions to enable businesses across all sectors of the economy to grow.  It will also cover initiatives to improve the capabilities of existing businesses, exporting and non-exporting, as well as initiatives aimed at promoting enterprise in its widest sense, including business start-ups.  

Like the Economic Strategy, this document will include key commitments from Departments and agencies across the Executive as well as key stakeholder/partner organisations.

The Enterprise Strategy will be published for consultation in due course.

Assistance to Business

This is not an exhaustive list of all forms of support but instead provides a snapshot of the main European, UK and NI schemes recently introduced as a direct response to the economic downturn. These include European Investment Bank Funding, BIS's Enterprise Finance Guarantee and Invest NI's Accelerated Support Fund and Short Term Aid Scheme.

This matrix of support will be updated as new schemes develop.

assistance_to_business_table_-_february_2012.pdf

For further information, please email epdadmin@detini.gov.uk or call Business Development Unit on 028 9052 9369.