Launch of Downpatrick Business Forum - 8 July 2009

Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.  I would like to thank the Business Forum for the invitation to attend this launch.

I very much welcome the establishment of the Business Forum as a local MLA but also as Social Development Minister with responsibility for regeneration in towns like Downpatrick.

Downpatrick has seen much progress in recent months.  We have just heard about the opening of the wonderful new cinema.  The long awaited new hospital opened its doors 2 weeks ago (the culmination of 40 years campaigning!) and work is about to begin on the major Public Realm Improvement scheme in the town centre.  And of course we had the new Regional Further Education College and my own Department will be chipping in with a brand new Jobs and Benefits Office.

In addition we have the potential benefits to the area of the creation of a Mourne National Park and within the town itself the existence of a number of opportunity sites of enormous potential including the Downe and Downshire.

The establishment of Downpatrick Business Forum is also an important development that has the potential to make a significant contribution to the regeneration of our County town.  Experience elsewhere has taught us that towns where local business people work together in a structured way, their town tends to do better than where there is less co-ordinated effort

Any forum of this nature needs to be inclusive if it is to be successful and deliver for the local business community.  We need all sectors of the local economy present at these meetings and making a contribution.  

After all, we all have a common interest in making Downpatrick a destination for visitors and shoppers as well as people seeking to use the wide range of services on offer in the town.

We are also masterplanning the town at present so that Downpatrick develops in a coherent manner in pursuit of clear objectives and a vision of what we want it to become.

I know that you will have as your priority the creation of a prosperous, economically buoyant Downpatrick.

I share that objective and will work alongside you and other stakeholders to achieve it.

I also believe there is tremendous potential to leverage our historic built heritage and connection to the whole story of St Patrick – now a ‘signature project’ for Northern Ireland.  

And I don’t mind conceding that I’m attracted to the political context around Patrick – the Shared Future – which I think we can exemplify in Downpatrick.

I see the launch of this forum as a first step towards the establishment of a more formal business organisation in Downpatrick.  In the past my Department has supported town centre based business organisations with capacity building and training.  Should the Business Forum develop into a constituted body in the future I will ensure that appropriate resources are made available

I wish you all the best for the future and I would like to thank you once again for the invitation to be here tonight.