​Don’t let Perfect be the enemy of Good, says FSB NI

FSB had its own policy conference in London to identify the business issues on which it wants to engage politicians before next year’s general election. We also partnered with Newry Chamber to stage the annual NI SME Conference, where key business issues were discussed, from artificial intelligence to finance.

And there are political party conferences where awkward policies of the past are quietly being consigned to the archives and shiny new ones are being trailed – each designed to attract new voters and retain the faithful.

All of this has the potential to affect the business environment, so FSB has attended each one, helping to shape the agenda and improve the landscape.

Recently in this newspaper, I have written about two major policy areas where business and politics have worked in lockstep to maximise opportunities; namely the NI Investment Summit and the Windsor Framework.

By any standards, the Summit was a huge success, sending signals around the world about the compelling logic for investors to choose Northern Ireland as a location from which to access two of the world’s largest markets. I even read a highly positive account of the event in Arab News, the leading English language newspaper in Saudi Arabia, extolling the opportunity presented by Northern Ireland.

Of course, to maximise the investor offering we needed to see processes that would deliver the frictionless trade promised by the Prime Minister in the Windsor Framework. That process went live this week and, despite some portents, our logistics industry rose to the challenges, officials worked hard, and the transition was, in the event, pleasantly anticlimactic.

That’s not to say we won’t hit occasional problems, however, one of the advantages of the Windsor Framework is contained in its name – it’s a ‘framework’ which allows for new challenges, whether predicted or unexpected, to be addressed calmly within agreed structures by parties who have all committed that their actions will “impact as little as possible on the everyday life of communities in both Ireland and Northern Ireland”.

In the various business conferences I have attended the overwhelming sentiment has been to seize the opportunities that stand before us; not to let pursuit of ‘perfect’ be the enemy of ‘good’, but to go with the tide and maximise the situation. To harness the global interest that we currently enjoy, highlighted in the Investment Summit and championed by the US Special Economic Envoy, Joe Kennedy III; to know that we have a full place within the UK’s Internal Market; coupled with full access to the whole island of Ireland market; and a right of access to the EU Single Market.

There is a real sense that businesses are ready to work within this new norm, and are scoping out how best to use it to the benefit of the wider NI economy.

In getting to this point, FSB has engaged with the Office for the Internal Market and many other Whitehall departments to share the experiences, needs and aspirations of small businesses, with regard to maximising their position.

Of course, we are still in the early stages of getting used to the Windsor Framework, and the large supermarkets, hauliers and parcel operators have drawn the initial focus, but we can’t rest on our laurels.

We need to minimise ‘cosmetic’ checks – those that are only in place to demonstrate there is a checking regime – and implement only on those that market intelligence demands.

We also need to keep improving the system, embracing technology to ensure that the systems for moving goods for smaller businesses – known as ‘groupage’, where consignments of multiple loads are moved as a group within single lorries – are made frictionless.

It will always be a process, not a fixed settlement, but the signs are encouraging.

The Northern Ireland Investment Summit was a beacon of the positive impact that global goodwill, collaboration and investment can have on a local region; where relationships began that will start to bear fruit and deliver more growth, jobs, and innovation, and position us as a major player on the international stage.

In 2018, FSB set out a vision paper for Northern Ireland to respond to the major changes that were occurring, and challenged politicians to seize the emerging opportunities to become a globally significant ‘Enhanced Economic Zone’ – the “Singapore of the Western Hemisphere” – with access to the UK and EU markets on our doorstep, and an ambition to go much further.

The combination of a smoothly operating Windsor Framework, coupled with initiatives such as the Northern Ireland Investment Summit, brings that ambition much closer to fulfilment, so we must stand firm in our resolve to seize and not squander the goodwill and the opportunity it has generated.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The Northern Ireland Investment Summit was a beacon of the positive impact that global goodwill, collaboration and investment can have on a local region