Northern Ireland is the Place for New Business

March 2012 has been a record month for start-ups across Northern Ireland, according to data analysed by company formations agents Duport Associates Ltd.

Records for new start-up companies have been broken in the counties of Antrim and Fermanagh showing the highest figures for new businesses in those areas since 2007.

95 new companies were formed with registered offices in County Antrim in March 2012, up from the previous high of 87, set in March 2007. County Fermanagh’s new record of 26 new formations has risen from the record 23 formed in April 2005.

But it’s not just the counties that are breaking records. The towns of Enniskillen, Omagh and Strabane also broke their records for new company formations in March 2012, showing a huge rise in entrepreneurship across Northern Ireland.

“Clearly Northern Ireland is the place to be forming a new company right now,” stated Peter Valaitis, Managing Director of Duport Associates Ltd.

“With records for new businesses being broken across Northern Ireland, it’s clear that entrepreneurs are making the most of their opportunities and seeing new possibilities despite the economic climate.”

The government’s proposed “enterprise zones”, designed to provide finance and support to small businesses are being rolled out across the UK – but there are currently no plans for any in Northern Ireland.

Discussions about setting up an enterprise zone that covers the whole region have been taking place in Westminster, but Finance Minister Sammy Wilson is against the proposal, terming it “nonsense” due to the relaxation of planning laws within enterprise zones.

“You can’t apply relaxed planning laws across the whole of Northern Ireland. You would have factories up against a residential area. What we have said is that we would like some of the powers of an enterprise zone to apply across Northern Ireland,” said Mr Wilson.

Whether Northern Ireland gets its own enterprise zone or becomes one, it seems that entrepreneurs across the country are already feeling confident.

Duport Associates Ltd is a leading UK company formation agent, operating in the UK for around 15 years. Duport registers around 10,000 new companies each year using its Companies House approved software. The Company Register which is maintained by Companies House contains public information about Limited companies and directors.

Source: prweb.com