Congratulations to our two local MPs, the newly elected Micky Brady MP for Newry & Armagh and the returning MP for South Down Margaret Ritchie MP. We hope that in their respective roles they will help to strengthen and grow our local business community. I would assume with the Westminster elections now well out of the way normal service will resume at Stormont. We will watch with interest to see if the Stormont House ‘Agreement’ will be finally agreed and thus whether as a result the Northern Ireland Corporation Tax Bill will be ratified.
We, as a Chamber, believe that the devolution of Corporation Tax would give us a competitive advantage if we can successfully exploit our location however it is important to be fully aware of the pros and cons. We are, therefore hosting an event to look at the potential impact of the devolution of corporation tax in association with PKF-FPM in June. Details of this event will be announced in the coming weeks.
We are also delighted that Sean O Driscoll, Chief Executive of Glen Dimplex will be the guest speaker at our annual gala dinner on 28th May. This fascinating global company originated right here in Newry and I am sure anyone who has heard the story of its history will agree it is truly inspirational. This week we agreed the date of the much anticipated Greater Newry Area Business Awards which this year will be hosted on 24th September. Categories and information will be announced soon to enable businesses to start thinking about their entries. I think we have achieved a lot locally in the last two years and it is important that we really celebrate our local success stories.
Newry Hour on Twitter is gathering momentum again and I am delighted that one of our ‘regulars’ is in the paper this week chatting about his experience of getting involved. Even if you aren’t very ‘tech savvy’ feel free to get in touch with us in the Chamber and we can quickly talk you through how you can get involved. We are always keen to hear from businesses who might be interested in joining Newry Chamber so again if you would like any information on what we do please do contact the office.
For information about Chamber events, news and views please log onto www.newrychamber.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
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