https://soundcloud.com/wlrfmwaterford/hot-desk-se-regional-enterprise-plan-march-24th
The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys, TD, was in Waterford on Friday to launch a new Regional Enterprise Plan for the South-East to support enterprise growth and job creation through collaborative initiatives. The Minister was joined at the launch by Minister for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan, TD and Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government with special responsibility for Local Government and Electoral Reform, John Paul Phelan, TD.
The launch took place at the South-Eastern Applied Materials (SEAM) Research Centre at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), which is celebrating ten years of services to industry.
The development of the South-East Plan, incorporating counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford, was overseen by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, working with stakeholders from the South-East region, through a regional stakeholder Committee chaired by Frank O’Regan.
The South-East Plan identifies five Strategic Objectives, with actions to enhance the existing environment for enterprise activity and growth, while building greater resilience; establish the South-East as a place of choice for talent and investment; develop a regional engagement strategy to highlight critical infrastructure developments; make the South-East a ‘learning’ region; and the develop the region’s tourism offering.
The South-East Plan is the final one of nine Regional Enterprise Plans launched by Minister Humphreys in recent weeks.
Speaking at SEAM, where she also officially opened the new 3DWIT additive manufacturing project, which received grant funding of over €1.3 million under her Department’s Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD said:
“The collaboration in evidence here at SEAM is a superb example of what these new Regional Enterprise Plans are fundamentally about. The Regional Enterprise Plan for the South-East that I am launching today sets out a number of key strategic areas where regional stakeholders working together will provide a basis for future enterprise development and job creation that is sustainable in the longer term.
“I am pleased to note that jobs growth has been strong in all regions, including the South-East. There are 18,500 more people at work today in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford than at the beginning of 2015, when the Government first launched regional jobs plans, and the unemployment rate has reduced significantly, from 11.7 percent down to 7.7 percent today.”
The nine new Regional Enterprise Plans being launched by Minister Humphreys are the result of an extensive refresh of the original Regional Action Plans for Jobs (RAPJs) which ran from 2015 to 2017/8. The new Plans complement the ongoing core work of the Enterprise Agencies, LEOs, Regional Skills Fora, and other bodies involved in supporting enterprise development in the regional setting.
