U.S. firms invest one year on from N.Ireland deal

By Paul Hoskins

BELFAST, May 8 (Reuters) - Leading North American business figures declared Northern Ireland open for business on Thursday, promising to invest in the province a year after a power sharing deal that has ushered in a new era of political stability.

Northern Ireland's once feuding politicians, who 12 months ago set aside decades of hatred to work together in running the British province, marked the anniversary with a conference designed to highlight the region's appeal to investors.

"We've had a lot of bad news from Ulster in days that are passed but today is another good day," First Minister Ian Paisley told reporters. "I'm glad that we're going places."

Northern Ireland's once thriving economy was badly damaged by bombings and shootings that killed over 3,600 people during three decades of conflict between the province's minority Catholics who want a united Ireland and pro-British Protestants. A 1998 peace deal largely ended the violence, but a decade on many jobs still depend on state support and while Northern Ireland makes 30 percent of the world's aircraft seats and a quarter of the buses on the streets of London, its industrial base is still a shadow of the one that built the Titanic.

The province has attracted 1.1 billion pounds ($2.15 billion) of inward investment over the last five years, however, with over half of it coming from North America.

"Peace in Ireland seems to be stable and the whole environment is very conducive to business," Mike Zafirovski, Chief Executive of Canadian telecoms equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp (NT.TO), told delegates at the conference.

"Also there's ... a great, energetic and very skilled work workforce. A government that's supportive of industry."

Paisley, a fiercely pro-British Protestant preacher, and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a Catholic Irish nationalist and former IRA guerrilla, have travelled back and forth to the United States over the last 12 months.

The former foes have displayed a unity that has taken many by surprise and that they hope will help drum up the kind of investment that has proved a major boon to the economy in the Republic of Ireland, where corporate taxes are lower than the UK equivalent in Northern Ireland but wages and other costs are higher.

"OPPORTUNITY TO PROSPER"

New York Stock Exchange owner NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) on Thursday announced a 3 million pound investment in its Wombat Financial Software unit in Northern Ireland, creating 75 jobs.

"I'm pleased to have one of the development centres here instead of some of the other places I could have had that are a) more expensive and b) not as well positioned to get the best and brightest," Chief Executive Duncan Niederauer told reporters.

Californian electronic payments firm CyberSource (CYBS.O) also plans to create 56 jobs by establishing a research and development centre in Belfast. Chairman and Chief Executive William McKiernan said Northern Ireland had only come to his attention after the new administration's investment drive.

"We looked at China, we looked at India, we looked at Russia and frankly we hadn't even thought about Northern Ireland," McKiernan said, adding he had been attracted to the province by a similar work ethic to that in Silicon Valley.

Canadian plane and train maker Bombardier Inc (BBDb.TO) said on Wednesday it would invest 70 million pounds to expand its aircraft manufacturing operations in Northern Ireland.