Call centres have employed hundreds in recent years

Over the past five years there has been a steady increase in the level of inward investment, particularly in IT and the service sector.

Leading financial services companies such as Halifax, Prudential and Abbey National have set up call centres in the Belfast area, as have some US companies.

This has resulted in the creation of 4,000 jobs, with up to another 6,000 likely from existing commitments.

Good workforce available

The software and telecoms sectors have also shown significant growth, with many companies looking to exploit the good supply of graduates from the province's two universities.

The ability to recruit good workers has been repeatedly cited by employers across the industrial spectrum as one of the region's chief attractions.

The broader engineering industry has also seen something of a boom, with companies such as the Canadian-owned aerospace firm Shorts, Nortel, and a Caterpillar subsidiary leading the sector.

But despite a brighter picture there are some notable exceptions.

Northern Ireland's two biggest employers are food and textiles. Both have struggled to compete in international markets.

Over the past two years, almost 2,000 jobs per year have been lost in clothing and textiles, with high street retailers increasingly looking to buy more clothes from developing countries.

The difficulties of the farming and food production sectors are also not exclusive to Northern Ireland, but despite these problems, they too remain significant employers.

Changing approach

However, perhaps the biggest change has been in the approach of business leaders generally.

In the past, industry could be broadly characterised as lacking ambition, productivity and competitiveness.

It relied heavily on the local and public sector markets.

While further progress needs to be made, local industry is now increasingly outward-looking and competitive.

Over six years, exports have risen from 28% to 37% of sales, while last year manufacturing output increased by 7.3%, compared to 1.1% for the UK as a whole.

The challenge for the recently established devolved administration will be to manage the next phase of this evolution from an economy heavily dependent on traditional 'low value added' businesses, to one that will be increasingly reliant on knowledge based and services industries.

That will mean skilling and re-skilling workers in an increasing tight labour market, and providing the next generation of the workforce with the right skills.

Of course, critical to the long term economic wellbeing of the region, and its potentially lucrative tourism sector in particular, will be the maintenance of political stability.