29 September 2015

On Wednesday 16th September, in Cork Custom House, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Chris O’Leary welcomed over 50 invited guests to a briefing event on the potential for attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for Cork City Centre. The event informed the local business community and other stakeholders about the upcoming fDi Forum 2015, taking place on Thursday 24th September in London, which Cork City Council will be sponsoring and using as a platform to introduce the city to major global FDI decision makers and influencers.

The fDi Forum, which will bring together a high level group of leaders in the global FDI community, exploring global trends and strategies for growth, is being organised by fDi Magazine and the Financial Times. Cork City Council, as the only Irish sponsor, along with Cork Chamber of Commerce, Cork Airport and IDA Ireland, and representatives from Cork based global and domestic businesses, will be showcasing how Cork has enabled them to succeed and grow. Representatives will show how, as a high quality second tier European city region, Cork adds more depth to Ireland’s international offering as a global business location.

Attending the briefing event were members of the Cork delegation to London, which is being led by Ann Doherty, Chief Executive of Cork City Council, who will participate in one of the pivotal panel discussions at the international forum. Joining the Cork delegation will be senior representatives from Cork City Council, including Pat Ledwidge, Director of Strategic Planning & Economic Development, along with some of the region's FDI success stories, including Tyco, as well as indigenous success stories who have built global brands out of Cork including Voxpro and Teamwork.com. Also joining the delegation will be organisations responsible for some of the region's most ambitious and state of the art developments including JCD (One Albert Quay and The Capitol), O’Callaghan Properties (introducing a new development on Anderson’s Quay) and Dairygold (with their soon to be launched Trinity Quarter development on the former Brooks Haughton site).

The Lord Mayor stated “We believe the stage is now set to promote the city as a great place for international businesses to be based as part of their growth strategies, due to major investment in the city through major office, retail, leisure and residential property development, infrastructure and environmental improvements coming on stream in 2015 and beyond, supported by a can do local authority, strong national agencies such as IDA Ireland and Cork’s own marketing strategy. We are a connected city, big on life, with a talented and educated workforce, with an enviable range of global brands who already have made Cork their home, and we have so many reasons to share why Cork makes good business sense.”

Lending his support to the delegation is New Zealand All Black Doug Howlett, one of the leading lights in international rugby, who finished his playing career with Munster and who since then has made Cork his home professionally and personally. Mr Howlett stated “Like so many others I came to this region for work. Nine years later my family and I are proud to call Cork home. Cork has so much to offer - a superb quality of life, a pro-business and collaborative working environment, a talented and educated workforce reinforced by excellent tertiary education options, and being a second city region, our city has the compactness and a friendliness that most city regions can’t come near to.”

Also travelling to London to promote Cork will be Cork Chamber President, Barrie O’Connell, who spoke at the briefing and stated “Cork’s strengths in technology, life sciences, food and beverages and business services are supported by our third level institutions and our R&D centres of excellence. With a spirit and history of entrepreneurship and trade, Cork has developed into a thriving hub of global growth sectors, and all within an hour of London.”

Ann Doherty, Chief Executive of Cork City Council, ended the proceedings with a call to action, asking everyone to play their part in attracting new business to Cork: “We all have a role to play in attracting new business to Cork, from the taxi drivers picking up visitors to Cork from the airport, who are often the first point of contact for decision makers coming to our region, to myself and my colleagues in Cork City Council and our many partners including Cork Chamber, Cork Port Authority, Cork Airport, IDA, UCC, CIT, to name but a few, who are working hard to encourage these decision makers to consider Cork as part of their global plans.”

To learn more of the work of Cork City Council’s FDI strategy and messaging visit www.corkcity.ie/invest.