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Why Northern Ireland

Why Northern Ireland?

Northern Ireland is a fantastic place to live, work and do business.

Doing business with Northern Ireland can help your company grow. Northern Ireland is a great place to grow a business internationally thanks to its highly skilled talent, excellent infrastructure, competitive costs, and supportive, business-friendly environment. It is also home to world-class suppliers with global exporting experience that can fill gaps in your supply chain.

Northern Ireland's Unique Market Access Position following EU Exit

Following the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU), Northern Ireland continues to have access to Great Britain (GB) and EU markets for goods. This means that Northern Ireland is a gateway for the sale of goods to two of the world’s largest markets and the only place where businesses can operate free from customs declarations, rules of origin certificates and non-tariff barriers on the sale of goods to both GB and the EU.

This puts Northern Ireland in the highly advantageous position of being the only region in the world able to trade goods freely with both the GB and EU markets. 

By establishing your business in Northern Ireland, you can become much more competitive thanks to unique tariff-free access to two of the biggest markets in the world.

Read more about Northern Ireland’s Tariff-Free Market Access to GB and the EU.

Contact us to find out how we can help your company grow

  • Business friendly

    Over 1,500 international companies already invest in Northern Ireland.

  • Guaranteed talent

    A highly skilled workforce and 100% free, customised training and recruitment programmes for investors.

  • Competitive costs

    Operating costs can be 40% lower than other Western European locations.

  • Global exporter

    An established track record in international trade, exporting to over 100 countries.

Where are we?

Northern Ireland is one of the four regions of the UK, ideally situated to access all key global markets. Invest NI also has teams across Europe, APAC, IMEA and the Americas supporting business between Northern Ireland and the rest of the world.

Northern Ireland overview

  • Part of the UK

    One of the four regions of the UK, alongside England, Scotland and Wales.

    Market access

  • Educated population

    The population of 1.9 million has the highest level of educational degree completion in the UK.

  • World-class universities

    Home to two leading global universities and a strong network of regional colleges.

  • Next-gen telecoms

    #1 location in the UK and Ireland for full-fibre access and a rapidly expanding 5G network.

  • Well-connected location

    Access to three international airports and excellent rail, road and sea connections.

  • Great place to live

    Ranked the happiest place to live in the UK.

What others are saying

Every time we open our doors to work every day in Northern Ireland, we save half a million dollars, and that is something that we don't take lightly.

Suren Gupta, Technology & Operations Executive Vice President, Allstate

I spent 20 years in London and my commute to the city was two and a half hours each day. I’ve been in Northern Ireland for five years and every day Belfast gives me back two of those hours.

Leigh Meyer, Managing Director FX/MM Operations, Citi Belfast

We considered a number of location options. Northern Ireland stood out for the great calibre of the available people, combined with cost competitiveness and geographical convenience.

Graeme Johnston, Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills

Sector strengths

Northern Ireland is strong in a number of sectors with clusters of expertise in everything from aerospace to wave power.

View all our sectors

  • We make 40% of the world's tracked mobile stone crushing and gravel screening equipment.

  • 1 in 5 of the world's computer hard drives have parts made in Northern Ireland.

  • Northern Ireland has around 50 per cent of the business and first class seating market share.

Competitive operating costs

Northern Ireland is a very cost-competitive location for business.

Operating costs can be on average, 40% lower than other Western European locations (Source: fDi Benchmark, August 2023. Calculation based on a 100 person Legal Services Centre).

Property

  • Prime office rents are among the lowest in Western Europe and compare very favourably with other regions in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
  • Grade A office space in Belfast is available from £24/ sq. ft.

Find a commercial property in Northern Ireland.

Salaries

Salary costs can be on average around 35% lower than other Western European locations. (Source: fDi Benchmark, August 2023. Calculation based on a 100 person Legal Services Centre)

Taxation

The overall tax burden in Northern Ireland is the lowest of all the major European economies.

The UK remains the lowest taxed large economy with:

  • Low personal taxation
  • Low social welfare contributions
  • Generous tax allowances
  • No local taxes on profits or surplus

Tax incentives

Investors benefit from a myriad of tax incentives to encourage further development, including:

  • Corporation tax (25 per cent) is the lowest in the G7
  • Businesses can benefit from R&D tax relief: 20% HMRC R&D expenditure credit
  • For every £1 spent on R&D, real cost to company can be 41p

Skilled workforce

We've got great people. Northern Ireland has a workforce that’s educated, innovative, resilient and results-driven.  Thanks to the work ethic and loyalty of our people, labour turnover is also known to be low, which can deliver further cost savings.

  • Strong committed workforce

    A steady stream of enthusiastic, talented people for knowledge-based companies seeking a strong workforce.

  • Available skills

    Assured Skills, a free, customised, training and recruitment programme for investors complements our well-educated workforce.

  • Low turnover

    Known for its strong work ethic, our investors tell us that labour turnover is also very low compared to other regions.

World-leading universities

Queen's University Belfast

Northern Ireland has two world-class universities Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University and an extensive network of further education colleges providing excellent academic and vocational training.

Both universities are responsive to business, creating graduates with skills, competency and acumen in business-relevant areas.

Over 4,000* people graduate each year with business qualifications in Northern Ireland.

* Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency

Ulster University, Magee Campus

Northern Ireland is a great choice for overseas students seeking a high quality education abroad. It also provides a great offering for overseas governments, ministries and education providers who are looking for a partner region to support the development of their own education provision or to forge research partnerships. To find out more, visit our international education page.

Advanced infrastructure

Northern Ireland's excellent transport and communications infrastructure allows companies to do business easily with their customer base around the world.

Transport

  • The first-rate road network has minimal levels of congestion and brings most of Europe within 24-48 hours.
  • Three airports deal with almost seven million passengers a year.
  • Belfast’s two airports have daily scheduled flights to destinations across the UK and Europe.
  • City of Derry Airport has regularly scheduled services to GB destinations.
  • The region has four ports.
  • Belfast Harbour is the second busiest port on the island of Ireland.
  • 160 ferry and freight sailings per week to Great Britain and Europe.

Communications

  • Northern Ireland has a great communications infrastructure and the region enjoys international connectivity at a very competitive cost.
  • The first region in Europe to achieve 100 per cent broadband coverage
  • One of the first to operate high speed, next-generation services with a 100-gigabyte per second transatlantic and terrestrial telecommunications link between Northern Ireland, North America and Europe
  • A fully digital, fully fibre optic communications network.

Please get in touch.  You can find a team in your region or fill in an enquiry form and a member of the team will contact you directly.

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