Eastern Regional Office
Invest NI's Eastern Regional Office works with local entrepreneurs and established businesses across the Belfast City Council area seeking to develop growth in export sales and employment.
We assist companies to develop and grow export sales and we work in partnership with stakeholders to drive economic development across Belfast.
Successes
We are committed to helping Belfast-based businesses grow and compete. Between 2014/15 and 2018/19 we have provided support of over £213M to 1,504 local and 181 externally owned businesses based in Belfast. This support has helped secure over £1.3bn of investment and is helping companies to create 12,605 jobs.
The region supports a breadth of sectors including ICT, life & health sciences, global business services and emerging sectors such as cyber security, regtech and legaltech. Over the past few years the city has also attracted a significant number of internationally recognised global investors.
We have supported investments from local and international companies including:
- AquaQ Analytics - invests £8.3million in its Belfast office and creates 123 new jobs
- Neueda – digital solutions company invests £20million and creates 230 jobs
- PEAK6 - Chicago-headquartered company to create 160 jobs at its new centre of excellence in Belfast
- Qarik - New York technology business establishes a Research and Delivery Hub in Belfast and creates 50 jobs
- ScreenCloud – London Software-as-a-Service company invests in Northern Ireland for the first time and creates 54 jobs
- Insurance Office of America – Florida based company sets up a 40-person technical development centre in Belfast
Belfast has a vibrant cluster of leading ICT companies including 100 global technology leaders which have established business operations such as Fujitsu, Equiniti, Puppet, Rapid7 and Whitehat Security; as well as local companies exporting internationally such as Etain, Kainos and Novosco. Belfast is also fast becoming an internationally recognised global cyber security hub, and is already known as a top UK location for cyber security inward R&D investment from USA and its specialist university research centres, including the Centre of Secure Information Technology at Queen's University, Belfast.
Belfast is emerging as a hub for Legal technology & innovation with companies including Axiom, iManage and Repstor plus the Ulster University Legal Innovation Centre, the first of its kind in the UK.
Belfast is also the number one destination globally for Fintech development projects including trading and payments technologies, regtech, analytics, blockchain and AI.
Exports
The Eastern Regional Office works extensively with local businesses seeking to develop sales outside of Northern Ireland for the first time. Support is aimed at accelerating the development of new export focused businesses and assisting existing business to grow in external markets.
Working in partnership
In addition to our direct support to businesses we work with a range of stakeholders to help grow the local economy by creating employment opportunities, attracting investment and ensuring the right conditions and in place to foster continued business growth.
Regional Manager
Susan O'Kane is Invest Northern Ireland's Regional Office Manager for the North Eastern and Eastern Regional Offices.
Susan has been with Invest NI since 2003 and has held a number of roles including working with the ICT sector and the textiles sector.
She also spent time on secondment to UKTI, Dusseldorf, Germany, selling the skills of Northern Ireland on a European basis.
Council Briefings
