Defining priority sectors/clusters
A number of sectors/clusters have been identified as having strong potential to drive the economy in Northern Ireland and as such are considered ripe for priority focus.
These sectors are:
- agri-tech
- life and health sciences
- advanced manufacturing, materials and engineering
- fintech/financial services
- software
- screen industries
- low carbon (including green hydroden).
Standard Industrial Classification
The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) (2007) system is used to classify business and collect economic data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Amongst other things, SIC data provides information on the number of firms, employees and turnover.
The changing nature of the economy and the emergence of sectors that did not exist in 2007 mean that SIC system definitions do not capture accurately the priority sectors which the department identified as being strategically important to driving Northern Ireland's economy. To counter this issue, the department undertook an exercise to define these seven sectors by 4 and 5 digit SIC, attributing all or part of relevant SICs to sectors.
These definitions were developed with input from a wide variety of sources including information from Data City as well as engaging key stakeholders such as policy leads, statisticians, economists and industry specialists. After a period of public consultation, the definition of these sectors was further refined and a final SIC definition is now available: