Mayor, Cllr Elisha McCallion welcomed home local Diaspora who are living and working away from home and who travelled back to with family over the festive time, to be her guests at a special reception in the Guildhall on 22^nd December.

The event was part of the Mayors new Diaspora initiative, aimed at reconnecting with the Diaspora community across the world and inviting them to come home, share their experiences and help to tell the region’s positive new story.

The Mayor opened up her chambers to local people who had travelled home from Rome, Florida, Miami, Canada and parts of the UK as they enjoyed a warm welcome from her over mulled wine and mince pies.

The event was a huge success and the Mayor is hopeful that it can become an annual event.

Local diaspora are encouraged to register they contact details at diaspora@derrystrabane.com so that they can be kept informed of forthcoming Council events and initiatives.

8^th December

Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Jonathan Bell has welcomed Invest Northern Ireland’s latest performance figures.

Speaking after the publication of today’s figures, Jonathan Bell said: “Invest NI was set new and stretching targets as part of the one year extension to the Programme for Government. This latest performance update shows they are well on track to deliver against, and in some cases exceed, the revised targets.

“By supporting local businesses to grow, and attracting new investors, Invest NI has helped promote over 39,000 new jobs across Northern Ireland over the last four and a half years.”
“Invest NI’s support over the last four and a half years has leveraged over £3.6bn of investment into the Northern Ireland economy. This is the result of businesses investing in research and development, recruiting new staff and upskilling their existing workforce as well as purchasing new machinery or equipment to make the business more efficient all of which is vital to ensure we remain ahead of the competition in this highly competitive global market place.”

03 December 2015

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Elisha McCallion is hopeful that Derry and Strabane District Council will develop a sister city relationship with Berkeley in the United States.

Speaking following a recent four-day visit to Berkeley and the wider San Francisco Bay area, Mayor McCallion said the meetings were extremely positive and she was quietly confident a formal arrangement between the two cities could be established.

She said: “Berkeley and Derry have very close connections and they are both very similar in terms of their history and outlook.  The trip last month was hugely successful and provided me with a great opportunity to further develop those links and connections and tap into their economy to identify new opportunities for investment, education and culture. Council will be attending the Sister Cities Summit in Dublin in the spring of next year to further pursue this proposal and we will also be extending an invitation to the Mayor of Berkeley and his team to visit Derry prior to the summit in an effort to further bridge the relationship between the cities.”

One of the positive outcomes of the trip was as a result of meetings with academics from the University of California, Berkeley, who agreed to send 20 of its students to the Ulster University’s Irish Language Summer School in 2016 and a further 30 students in 2017 and thereafter.

Dr Malachy Ó Néill, Head of the School of Irish Language and Literature at Ulster University said that he was delighted to welcome the additional students to the growing international provision at Magee Campus.

During the trip, the Mayor met with Invest NI and their West Coast team to update them on recent developments in Derry.  The Mayor chaired a breakfast meeting with key members of the North West Diaspora in the Bay Area and also with a number of companies with potential investments into NI and Derry.  There were specific discussions with members of the Diaspora around stimulating philanthropic investment into initiatives such as a scholarship fund for US students to Derry/Strabane.

The visit very successful in forging real and positive links with Berkeley and it is hoped that this will bring new opportunities for Derry and Strabane in the months and years ahead.

Northern Ireland’s reputation as a location of choice for international legal services investment is on the rise!

In an effort to maximise on this reputation, Invest Northern Ireland supported four Northern Ireland legal firms to exhibit at the International Bar Association annual conference in Vienna last month, the largest gathering of the international legal community in the world.

Olive Hill, Invest NI’s Director of Trade said: “In the last five years, interest in the Northern Ireland legal services sector has been boosted as the region has become an investment location of choice for global legal giants such as Baker McKenzie, Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith & Freehills and Axiom Law who have all established operations in Northern Ireland. This international profile provides a platform from which to promote the excellence of our local lawyers in key export markets”

“Continuing to grow Northern Ireland’s legal services sector through increased internationalisation is vital to the growth of our economy and so we were delighted to support local legal firms to participate in the IBA Conference this year.

Image by Press Eye Photography Pictured is Orlagh Kelly, former barrister and CEO of Briefed, with Olive Hill, Invest NI, and Chris Ross, Managing Partner of John McKee.

Details of Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Diaspora Engagement Project, which aims to reach out to Derry and Strabane people across the world to become ambassadors for the region, were revealed by the Mayor, Councillor Elisha McCallion, when she welcomed a delegation from the Global Irish Network today.

The delegation were in Derry as part of the Global Irish Economic Forum event being held in Dublin from 19-21 November. The Global Irish Economic Forum is organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Welcoming the delegation to the city, the Mayor said the visit was an excellent opportunity for her to connect with our global Diaspora community and encourage them to come home, share their experiences and help us to tell the region’s positive new story.

She explained: “Derry City and Strabane District Council is very keen to connect with our global Diaspora community and engage with them to have a role in shaping our economic and social future. Close to 1,000 highly skilled quality jobs have recently been created in the region presenting us with opportunities for our Diaspora to come home and bring their experience and skills and secure some of these positions. We feel that our Diaspora have an important role to play in our future success story, by assisting us in promoting Derry and Strabane as a good place to invest.”

Last month the Mayor travelled to Boston as part of a NW delegation to promote the region and linking up with the Diaspora was a key element of the trip. The Council has also been working in close partnership with Donegal County Council to learn from their experiences of their hugely successful Diaspora project.

Mayor McCallion said the Council’s membership and close working relationship with Northern Irish Connections is vitally important in allowing the Council to make positive connections and links with partners across the globe. “Thanks to Northern Irish Connections we can link directly with our partners and make real and positive connections with our Diaspora to encourage them to engage with us and help us tell our positive story.

“We have a lot to learn from our colleagues in Donegal who have developed what is now an award winning programme of engaging with Donegal Diaspora across the world. We want to work collectively with all our partners and connections to build on the work we have done so far to spread the word and help deliver a strong investment message.

“We have a very clear message for our Diaspora – we want you to get in touch in with, let us know when you are coming home, share your experience, your skills and your contacts to become an ambassador for the city and district and tell the world about where you come from and what a great place it is to live and work,” she added.

As part of the initiative the Mayor will be hosting a series of welcome events for Diaspora, the first being over the Christmas period when loved ones will be travelling home to spend time with their friends and family. Grandparents and parents across the Council area are being encouraged to spread the word and invite their families who are home for Christmas to come along to the Mayoral Diaspora reception to take place at the Guildhall on 22 December.

“I am really looking forward to the opportunity to invite people from Derry and Strabane who are home for Christmas to come into the Guildhall and be part of our festive celebrations and to share in our new story,” she added.

To find out more about the event and to register diaspora@derrystrabane.com