Government's strategy for West Belfast criticised
``The decline of FG Wilson and Mackie International, both of which
have been heavily supported by the Industrial Development Board, has
raised serious questions about the government's industrial strategy
for West Belfast'', says Denis O'Hearn, chair of the West Belfast
Economic Forum.
In 1996 the IDB announced a £4m package for Mackie's to help it
develop a new foundry that would provide 94 new jobs. The company was
a showcase of the peace dividend in West Belfast and was at centre
stage of the first visit by US President Bill Clinton to Belfast.
FG Wilson produces diesel generators. Again, the IDB paid almost £16m
to help set up the Springvale site and the project was heralded as a
vote of confidence for West Belfast. The site at Springvale was to
provide over 400 new jobs for the area, although only 211 jobs
materialised.
Neither company fulfilled the job promises for which they were given
assisstance. There is a strong suspicion that this is partly because
of the inflated promises that the IDB and the British government made
to West Belfast in the wake of the ceasefires of 1994.
Denis O'Hearn has been doing research into the role of the IDB and
IDB-assisted projects in West Belfast and believes that they fall
well short of the promises they made to the area. Speaking on the
subject he said, ``West Belfast is in the unfortunate position today
of having fewer IDB-sponsored jobs than it had before the ceasefires.
People are rightly puzzled about how this could be the case after all
the talk of a peace dividend''.
The difficulties faced by the companies cannot be divorced from the
wider IDB strategy for inward investment in West Belfast. This
strategy has been one of propping up a few older companies - raising
serious questions about their sustainability - along with the
introduction of a very few new inward investments that, so far, have
provided little real employment or economic dynamism for the area.
What is required is a more integrated approach to the economic
development of West Belfast, with the involvement of all the key
players and agencies. Charlie Fisher, a research assistant with the
WBEF, explains: ``This would require the development of clusters of
companies and local suppliers who hire local labour, but also the
development of integrated training programmes so that West Belfast
residents can compete for new jobs. In this respect, recent cutbacks
in training and the government's limited vision for the Springvale
campus are the opposite of what the area needs''.
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