As a further 350 manufacturing jobs are lost in Northern Ireland (NI), the business community hopes international efforts will get the industry’s conveyor belts rolling once again.
US Secretary of state Hilary Clinton has announced she is to hold an international investment conference over the next few months in which NI’s manufacturing losses will be a topic of discussion.
In an interview with the BBC, Bryan Gray, chief executive of NI Manufacturing said he hopes the politicians will use the meeting to discuss the problems affecting the NI community.
"The job losses that we have experienced have been worse than predicted. It is high time the politicians started to address the real issues like the decline of the manufacturing sector and the state of the economy," he commented.
Mr Gray’s comments come as American companies, Avaya based in Monkstown and Hughes Christensen in Castlereagh, announced they were to pull out from NI, affecting some 350 employees.
Local councillor Jim Rodgers described the announcements as "another example of how the manufacturing base in Northern Ireland has been eroded over the years," according to the Belfast Telegraph.
Over 8,400 jobs were axed within the region’s manufacturing industry last year.