Research and analysis

Northern Ireland Investment Summit 2023 evaluation (executive summary)

Published 5 April 2024

This page contains an executive summary. The full text is available by viewing the Northern Ireland Investment Summit (NIIS) 2023 evaluation

The Northern Ireland Investment Summit (NIIS) took place from 12 to 13 September 2023 in Belfast as part of the UK Government’s programme to mark the progress in Northern Ireland over the last 25 years since the signing of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.

This delivered on the undertaking made in 2022’s Autumn Statement, where the Chancellor of the Exchequer committed to providing up to £2 million for the Department for International Trade (now part of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT)) to work with local partners to host a trade and investment event in 2023, showcasing Northern Ireland as an attractive and vibrant place to do business and help drive new mobile investment into its economy.

DBT led delivery of the Summit working in partnership with the Northern Ireland Office and Invest Northern Ireland, with sponsorship from Citi Group. The Summit was co-hosted by Secretary of State for Business and Trade and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Events included:

• a welcome reception at Titanic Belfast on 12 September

• the Summit, held at the International Conference Centre, Belfast, on 13 September

• a gala dinner held at Hillsborough Castle on 13 September

The event profiled Northern Ireland’s strengths and ambitions across key sectors, showcased it as a place to do business and help drive new investment into the economy. There was a focus on advanced manufacturing and engineering, financial and professional services, life and health sciences, technology, creative industries, the green economy, and real asset investment opportunities. A pre-event target of attracting 100 international investors across these sectors was set as a key measure of success.

This process evaluation report assesses how well the objectives of the Summit were met. To do this, quantitative feedback forms, qualitative stakeholder interviews, researcher observations, and output data were collected by the project team and the event agency. The objectives defined in the table below were met. The target of 100 attendees was exceeded with 181 international investors attending.  The report does not provide monetary estimates of economic benefit, but longer-term legacy tracking to assess the economic gain based upon any subsequent investment has been planned.

An overview of the objectives and findings can be seen in the table below:

Objective	Assessment of impact	Details of assessment	Met?
To increase awareness of investment opportunities in Northern Ireland by overseas investors. ​	Met	Most international respondents stated an increased awareness of how to invest in Northern Ireland.	Yes
Positively influence perceptions of the benefits to investing in Northern Ireland​	Met	Qualitative and stakeholder feedback suggests attendees had improved perceptions of the benefits of investing in Northern Ireland and they will invest more in the future.	Yes
To increase understanding on how to find out more about investing in Norther Ireland​	Met	Qualitative and stakeholder feedback suggests attendees had increased understanding of how to seek information about investment in Northern Ireland	Yes