Gardiner wants Executive to boost Manufacturing on Craigavon Model
Sam Gardiner MLA, Ulster Unionist Assemblyman for Upper Bann, today called on the Northern Ireland Executive to consider ways in which manufacturing could be boosted in the province.
“Craigavon, in my Upper Bann constituency, is one of the main manufacturing centres in Northern Ireland and I believe it provides a good model for the future industrial development of Northern Ireland. Consideration should be given to creating a special Enterprise Zone around the Craigavon industrial hub with special tax and rates concessions to further boost manufacturing.”
“In 2000 manufacturing stood at nearly 16% of the workforce with over 103,000 employees. Now it stands at just 12% of the workforce with just over 85,000 employees. At the same time service industries have grown from 75% of the workforce with 490,000 employees to 80% of the workforce with 566,000 employees.”
“Manufacturing is the wealth creating base where new goods are manufactured and sold on at added value, creating real wealth in the process. Without this new wealth, there is not the surplus money in the economy on which to base our service sector. The service sector is currently resting on a precarious base which has depended up to now on high levels of well paid public sector employment. With demands growing for a shift from public to private sector, the service sector could be adversely effected.”
“This would be a good time to re-configure our industrial profile. The Executive should be considering measures to boost manufacturing which is the only real wealth creator so that we do not become over-dependent on the service sector.”
“Jobs are welcome in any sector, of course, but the good thing about new manufacturing jobs is that they create the potential to create still further service sector jobs resting on the new earnings manufacturing generates, particularly if it is focussed on export.”