To ask the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment for a breakdown of investment by his Department in East Londonderry in each year since 2011; and how he is selling the attributes of areas other than Belfast and Londonderry to encourage inward investment.

The following table details the total planned investment by companies through offers of assistance from Invest NI in the East Londonderry Parliamentary Constituency Area since 2011-12:

NOTE: Total may not add due to rounding.

In order to attract Foreign Direct Investment, Invest NI focusses on selling the attributes of all of Northern Ireland. To focus on specific areas would risk diluting the message in what is a very competitive market. Moreover any attempt to direct investment to specific areas would jeopardise the chances of winning the investment in the first place.

The attributes on which our proposition is based are a skilled workforce, competitive operating costs and advanced infrastructure in a strategic location. In order to sell these attributes, Invest NI engages in a variety of in-market promotional activity, including face-to-face meetings with potential investors, Ministerial visit programmes to existing and potential investors and speaking opportunities to senior business executives and business influencers. The aim of this activity is to encourage companies to make fact-finding visits into Northern Ireland.

Invest NI also partners with various stakeholders, such as universities and colleges, Tourism Ireland and councils, on complementary activity to promote the attractiveness of Northern Ireland to investors and encourage investment visits.

Invest NI is also helping councils in the development of their Community Plans and to identify their unique selling points to help attract investment. Once complete Invest NI will use these propositions to promote Northern Ireland at a sub-regional level when relevant to a particular investment project.

It is also important to consider other economic levers that can be used to enhance the attractiveness of an area. One such example is the establishment of an Enterprise Zone in Coleraine, which would increase the marketing proposition of the area. While the Enterprise Zone designation would primarily favour capital-intensive projects with modest job numbers, there would also be significant benefits in securing an anchor tenant, thereby creating a supply chain or enabler for other companies to locate nearby. Invest NI will monitor the progress of the Enterprise Zone designation and will factor the benefits that it brings into the overall business proposition.