25 years after the end of decades of civil war in Northern Ireland, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised greater economic prosperity for the region. “The most important thing we can do to improve people’s living standards and keep Northern Ireland prosperous is to stimulate economic growth,” the Conservative Prime Minister said today.
It is his responsibility as Prime Minister to ensure that the promise is kept. An investment summit is scheduled to take place in the region in September.
Tomorrow the Good Friday Agreement will be 25 years old. The agreement largely ended the bloody civil war between mostly Catholic supporters of uniting the two parts of Ireland and mostly Protestant supporters of union with Britain, the police and the British army. Around 3,600 people lost their lives in the conflict and more than 30,000 others were injured.
Sunak will receive US President Joe Biden in Northern Ireland next week, who himself has Irish roots and will pay tribute to the historic agreement with a visit to the British part of the country.
With the economic summit, which is to take place in Northern Ireland on September 12th and 13th, Sunak wants to attract further investments into the country. After Brexit, Northern Ireland has a special economic position: on the one hand it is part of the United Kingdom, on the other hand it is the only part of the country that continues to follow the rules of the EU internal market and the customs union. This is intended to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, where old conflicts could flare up.
