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Steve Harper, Invest Northern Ireland’s executive director, international and skills, sets out Northern Ireland’s unique competitive position.

With centuries of tradition in farming and a rich heritage of agricultural innovation, Northern Ireland continues to serve as a proving ground for modern, sustainable farming solutions.

According to the Living Wage Foundation, becoming a Living Wage Employer extends far beyond ethical and social considerations.

The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) continues to be remarkably successful in driving innovation and implementing new initiatives within the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom.

The King's Award for Enterprise is an internationally recognised mark of excellence, which highlights the world-class performance of businesses of all sizes across the UK.

The past few months have brought positive news for the North West. Investors and indigenous businesses have announced investments in the region that will create over 1,400 new jobs in the coming years. Vertiv, EY, Foods Connected, FinTrU and FabPlus, are just a few of the companies committed to growing their business in the North West.

During the financial year we monitor our activity and outputs against operational targets. These in-year targets help us measure our progress towards our Business Strategy.

Our 2023 Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) show a strong increase across Sales, External Sales and Exports amongst businesses we supported. All three metrics increased by at least 5 percent on 2022 figures.

Catherine McGuigan is Head of Leadership and Capability in our Skills & Competitiveness Division. She sets out here why strong leadership is critical to the success of your business.

The benefits of exporting are well documented at both a company and overall economy level. Besides offering significant growth opportunities through increased sales and enhancing resilience from economic shocks, firms exporting to a wide range of markets contribute to improving productivity, driving innovation, and their export-fuelled growth can create and sustain high quality jobs. And importantly for Northern Ireland, the distribution of export activity right across the region means that trade and its associated benefits, can be a driver of regionally balanced and inclusive growth.

If you’re not already exporting to Europe, 2024 is the year to set your sights on the over 500 million consumers in 27 countries that make up the European Union (EU) market, which is worth €14.5 trillion.

Ireland's whiskey heritage, anchored by centuries of distilling acumen in Northern Ireland, is experiencing a renaissance, with the spirit's global sales forecasted to double in the next decade.

The food and drink industry in Northern Ireland is valued at £7bn; it’s a progressive industry, focused on original products which are exported to over 70 countries.

In the fast-changing landscape of business, investing in Research and Development (R&D) and innovation is not merely a choice; it is a strategic necessity to achieve sustained growth and competitiveness. As the Director of Innovation and R&D at Invest Northern Ireland, I am convinced of the transformative power that innovation holds for businesses, and the pivotal role innovation plays in the growth of our economy.

Increasingly, consumers look to brand values and ethics as part of their purchasing decisions. They consider issues of sustainability, inclusivity and social impact alongside more traditional elements such as price and quality. Those businesses that are focused on the green economy or are working to ensure their products are accessible to everyone have an inbuilt competitive advantage.

In the competitive world of fintech, Northern Ireland is a leading global hub, earning worldwide recognition for its fintech ecosystem. The region's strategic blend of home-grown innovators and major international financial services companies has positioned us at the forefront of the industry's recent growth.

Ethna McNamee writes in this week's Ulster Herald about how our Western Regional Office supports businesses across Fermanagh & Omagh, Armagh Banbridge & Craigavon and Mid Ulster District Council areas. These areas are known for their entrepreneurial spirit, manufacturing, thriving agricultural sector and ambitious life & health sciences and construction companies.

Companies looking for a foothold in both the United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) markets should take a close look at Northern Ireland, which has unfettered tariff-free access to both.

In the realm of space technology innovation, Northern Ireland stands as a unique region where industry and academia seamlessly collaborate. Our dynamic landscape, flexible, highly skilled workforce and rich history of engineering and technology excellence converge to propel us into the future of space exploration.

As Global Entrepreneurship Week 2023 comes to an end, our thoughts turn to the future of entrepreneurship and providing the type of support business founders need to succeed.