Covid-19: £290m plan for NI's economic recovery after pandemic

A £290m plan to help the NI economy recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been unveiled.

The 29-page document is wide-ranging with four key areas.

They are skills, research and development, green recovery and investment, trade and exports.

The labour market has been hugely affected by Covid, which is why the document states there must be the skilled workforce needed to meet changing demand.

Economy Minister Diane Dodds said that as Northern Ireland moves slowly back to normality, "we must put all our efforts into restarting, repairing and rebuilding our economy".

The plan includes ideas like amending the age criteria for apprenticeships so that more people can apply, as well as increasing the maximum number of students in Northern Ireland by 5% over the next 3 years.

It also includes two initiatives announced last year - a high street voucher scheme to support "bricks and mortar" businesses which was delayed, and a "Holiday at Home" voucher scheme to boost the tourism sector.

Neither scheme has been given a date as it will depend on the progression of the virus and when the executive decides to re-open the economy.

"You couldn't seriously suggest that the high street voucher scheme would run with the high street essentially closed," the minister told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

But Mrs Dodds added that her department was "committed" to rolling out such initiatives which she said would "provide short-term economic boosts that the high street and retailers so evidently need".

Non-essential shops in Northern Ireland have been shut since the end of trading on Christmas Eve, as a new lockdown began on 26 December to curb a third wave of Covid-19 hospital admissions.

Looking ahead to medium and long-term plans in the document, the minister said Northern Ireland's workforce must prepare to tailor its skills base "to the needs of the economies of the future".

"We need to make sure that as companies innovate; as companies diversify; as companies come to Northern Ireland to settle and grow their business, that we have people with the right skills to match that," she told the programme.

Mrs Dodds said the Covid pandemic had been "terrible" but added that it has also ushered in "enormous changes" to the commercial landscape, particularly the trend of working from home.

She said that due to the switch to home working "our digital sector has really powered ahead, winning work from their parent companies in North America, proving to be very resilient and very productive".

The document said the Department for the Economy will "push for a permanent and complete solution to end frictions brought about by the protocol".

Angela McGowan, director of the Confederation of British Industry in Northern Ireland, said: "Businesses want to up-skill and re-skill workers, they want to be more productive and they want to sell into other markets and this is the ticket to do it.

"Now we've got the recovery plan, I suppose the implementation is the hard part, but we all have to come together to make sure it happens."

Tourism is likely to be among one of the last sectors to re-open and could take much longer to recover.

CEO NI Tourism Alliance Joanne Stuart said: "I think we are all realistic that it's going to be at least a few more months before we see the opening up of tourism."

She added: "We have a huge opportunity for the GB market given we are on the same vaccination programme, we will have to see about the Republic of Ireland, they are planning significant progress on their roll out.

"We will be the same as last year - it is definitely the home markets. We will not see international travel open up before the end of this summer season so the message is 'stay local and support your local tourism providers'."

Janice Gault, of the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation, welcomed the launch of the Economic Recovery Action Plan and said she is pleased to see the tourism industry being recognised as a key driver for the local economy.

Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle, the chief executive said she hopes the £219m plan, which would have to be approved by the NI executive, will be taken into consideration by ministers.

"We need to get back to trading, but we need to do that in a sustainable manner.

"We have the ability to bounce back, and luckily enough we can bounce back in a relatively timely manner," she said.

She added: "It is just a question of how much longer are we are going to have to go through this what are the long-term affects of this."