Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Belfast’s the biz City is world’s most commerce-friendly
Bank on Xmas charity boost
Brian Gillan, head of business and corporate banking at First Trust Bank, joins Jonathan Lamberton from the Northern Ireland Hospice at the lender’s Christmas Market.
As well as running a charity raffle which raised £350.00, the charity was on hand to offer staff and guests advice on their support services.
For further information about its work, visit www.nihospice.org. BELFAST has been named the most business-friendly mid and small-sized city in the world.
Compiled by fdi, a division of the Financial Times, it pipped Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Geneva and Zurich to the post.
In the closely-watched report Global Cities of the Future 2018/19, Belfast also came second only to Hong Kong in the highly-coveted Editor’s choice award for FDI Strategy.
This is based on the ability to win investment from overseas, beating financial hubs in the form of New York and Frankfurt into third and fourth place respectively.
Referencing the recent City Deal, the report said: “The city council employs more than 100 people to promote Belfast as a leading destination for investment, tourism and study, and enjoys sister city networks with Boston, Nashville and Shenyang.
“As part of an agreement with the UK government, Belfast stands to benefit from a £1billion deal to develop infrastructure, boost innovation and improve employability.”
The fdi said £100million worth of office space has been developed in the city since 2015 with an extra £100million under construction. It pointed to a “dedicated investment webpage” established early this year with information on Belfast’s key strengths and development plans, as well as resources such as the Belfast Investment Guide.
Meanwhile, the capital also scored highly in a ranking of mid and small cities in a number of other categories. It was placed fifth in a list of those with the most economic potential, third for human capital and lifestyle, sixth for cost effectiveness and fourth when it comes to connectivity. The news comes as a report from industry body the RICS shows the Northern Ireland housing market has continued to outperform all other regions of the UK.
It’s Ulster Bank Residential Market Survey reported a rise in prices last month compared to a fall for most other regions including London and the South East of England.
The outlook is also positive for Northern Ireland.
The RICS said it is the only region in the UK where estate agents expect prices to increase in the next three months.