Building prosperity on the border
A study on cross-border economic renewal has called for a three-pronged approach to economic development in the region. Stephen Dineen reports.
Economists John Bradley and Michael Best have called for a rebalancing of the border region’s economy, particularly the north west and mid-border regions, through the creation of a border economic development zone.
Bradley is an international economic consultant and Best is professor emeritus, specialising in industrial development strategies, at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
“The need for a new development strategy for the border region arises because its development is caught between two conflicting perspectives,” the report stated. National development agencies focus on their own jurisdictions, while local government and other regional institutions do not have the resources. The problem is compounded, it stated, by fragmented local government organisation.
‘Cross-border economic renewal: a study on regional policy’ stated that an economic development zone should be established with three dimensions: spatial, sectoral and institutional.
Spatial definition would involve defining the consequences of the twin problems of peripherality (psychological distance from metropolitan centres) and border policy fault lines. The zone is unlikely to coincide with existing council boundaries.
Identifying suitable industries, such as hi-tech and environmental technology plants in the eastern cross-border region, food processing in the mid-border region and new manufacturing and service specialities in the north west, would constitute the sectoral dimension.
Institutional co-operation would entail reducing knowledge deficits, institutional constraints, policy gaps and a lack of regional development focus.
With the absence of resources or political will to “design new institutions from scratch,” the authors proposed improving and refocusing the existing institutional policy framework “mainly by articulating a shared vision of the challenges faced within the ‘border development zone’.”
Former Industrial Development Authority Chief Executive Padraic White cited work between Enterprise Ireland and InvestNI in promoting industry clusters as an example of co-operation at a conference on cross-border economic revival last November.
Most of the successful companies in the border region pursued a strategy of developing a distinctive product or service and constructing the production capability to deliver it. Company re-invention “to take advantage of new technologies and market opportunities” was evident among successful firms.
In their report, the authors conducted a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the cross-border economy.
The economy’s strengths are successful cases of synthesising the potential of the border region as a whole and the potential for continuing and deepening co-operation between the local authorities on either side of the border.
A feeling of peripherality in the region is a weakness, as are low population density and urbanisation. Only a limited number of colleges produced graduates with technical and business skills that were in demand in the local business environment.
The economic structure is also weak, “characterised by declining, traditional sectors of manufacturing, a high reliance on agriculture, and a lack of the kind of market services that are required to sustain a modern manufacturing base.” Many graduates of local institutions “leave the region and seek employment elsewhere.”
Maximising benefits from improved North/South communications infrastructure is an opportunity, the report states, as well the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive viewing the border as an opportunity to strengthen economic links, not as a barrier.
Cross-border bodies and managing the existence of different currencies offer opportunities. Threats come from the sidelining of regional development and the advantages that other EU cross-border regions gain from integration e.g. the euro. The threat of a cut-off in targeted funding and fiscal adjustments (here and in the UK), as well as the long-term costs from different currencies (e.g. cross-border shopping) also pose problems.
The authors concluded that the border region faces “more internal structural and organisational weaknesses than it enjoys by way of opportunities and internal strengths.”
