Northern Ireland: Forging a new future

摘要

Northern Ireland is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year as a peaceful, prosperous and dynamic knowledge-based economy. Not many countries have engineered such a dramatic transformation. A century ago, its economy revolved around shipbuilding, heavy manufact-ing, rope and linen. Today, the small, agile nation punches above its weight in industries of the future, reveals Kevin Holland, CEO of the investment agency Invest Northern Ireland. "We are a world-class leader in areas like cybersecuri-ty, fintech, screen industries, software and life sciences. We are also very strong in advanced manufacturing-a fifth of global computer hard drives have parts made here, for instance." Clusters of excellence have been built around these and other sectors that have enabled homegrown entrepreneurial firms to catapult onto the worlds stage, with notable examples being Randox, CIGA Healthcare and Diaceutics in diagnostic testing; Devenish in sustainable food solutions; and FD Technologies, a frontrunner in streaming analytics.