Minister's speech - Invest NI’s ‘Powering Productivity’ Conference- 27 March 2025

Note: this publication may not reflect verbatim delivery by Minister Archibald

Good morning, everyone.

It’s great to see so many business owners, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs here to discuss this important topic.

Because productivity is a fundamental driver of overall levels of prosperity.

Despite its importance, in previous years the issue of productivity didn’t fully get the attention it deserved.

The focus of economic policy was on job creation, and with near full employment there has been success in that regard.

But if we are to take our economy to the next level, and improve the quality of jobs, then there needs to be a stronger emphasis on productivity.

That is why productivity is one of my four key priorities, alongside Good Jobs, Regional Balance, and Net Zero.

David Jordan, who is also speaking today, has been appointed to advise my Department on this issue.

David has done great work in highlighting the importance of productivity to a broader audience, analysing our strengths and weaknesses, and bringing forward policy recommendations.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank David for his support.

A key challenge is to restructure our economy from low productivity to high productivity sectors.

To that end, we have developed specific action plans for seven of our highest-potential industries.

As well as developing our highly productive domestic industries, Invest NI are targeting high quality FDI.

Companies that compete in international markets tend to be more productive and so we are using Dual Market Access to grow our exports.

In that regard it is encouraging that while the value of Britain’s exports are falling, in the north, our exports are growing.

Productivity is a focus of our City Deal projects.

My Department has therefore removed some of the bureaucracy that was holding up progress, allowing the delivery of projects to accelerate.

With £1bn of investment in Innovation and Digital Projects, we can lead the way.

We must continue to seek out exciting and ambitious initiatives, like the Artificial Intelligence Collaboration Centre.

This is a £16.3m project by Ulster University and Queen’s University, which will advance awareness and adoption of AI across all sectors and disciplines.

Through innovative activity like this; the ground-breaking Future Medicines Institute, Ulster University’ Cognitive Analytics Research Lab, and Invest NI’s new Founder Labs, we can truly leverage the productivity gains we want to achieve.

Invest NI is also putting a stronger focus on schemes that increase productivity.

For example, productivity is a key objective of the Agri-food Investment Initiative and the Productivity Booster.

And in recognition that clusters tend to be more productive, Invest NI has established the Clustering Acceleration Programme.

Finally, skills are critical to productivity.

So, despite the very difficult funding context, I am prioritising investment in skills.

This investment includes a dedicated Skills Fund, to target those who remain furthest from the workforce.

I’ve also recently published a Digital Skills Action Plan.

This plan, developed in partnership with industry, takes account of the changing landscape of our economy, which increasingly requires digital skills across all sectors.

In fact, recent findings show that improving the skills base in high priority growth sectors is responsible for a third of all productivity increases in the economy.

So, my commitment to improving our skills base underpins all of my economic plans.

Of course, many of the key levers reside with the government in London and with other Executive Departments and I take every opportunity to encourage other Ministers to take appropriate actions within their remit.

That is made easier in the Executive as we have agreed a focus on productivity as part of our Programme for Government.

So I hope that we are developing a supportive policy environment to increase overall productivity.

Ultimately that will only be achieved by individual businesses raising their productivity so it’s important to understand your experiences and for Invest NI to tailor its support to your needs.

I apologise that I can’t stay for the rest of the conference.

I’m meeting the Secretary of State in Derry to discuss how the British Government’s industrial strategy can align with our own economic plans, so I expect productivity to feature in that discussion.

So I hope you have a very interesting conference.

I’ve also asked my officials to provide me a read out from this session to ensure there is alignment between government and business on this crucial issue, so I look forward to receiving that. 

Thank you.