NEWS: NY finance chief "very serious” about investing millions in Northern Ireland

New York’s chief financial officer, who holds the purse strings to city and state’s pension funds worth over $100 billion, says he’s “very serious” about investing in Northern Ireland.

John Liu, New York City Comptroller said, despite the recent economic turmoil and a troubled history involving New York pension funds in the North, he remains committed to exploring opportunities.

Speaking at a conference in New York’s Financial District, he said he was “looking forward not back” – a reference to the fact that a pledge to invest $150m in the North made two years ago never materialised.

A Belfast-based fund set up to disburse the money was shut down earlier this year after failing to find matching investments from around the world.

In the end, not a single cent was used in local projects by the Emerald Fund during its two year existence.

“I’m pledging to continue to work to identify investments that in Northern Ireland that can earn a risk adjusted mark of return for our funds”, said Mr Liu, who took over the job in January, “It’s good for our pensioners, our retirees and our taxpayers, and at the same time, we will be able to reinforce the peace process.”

“It’s something I’m very excited about.”

The two-day New York New Belfast conference, organised by the Irish Echo newspaper, also heard a commitment from the leader of New York City Council to forge closer educational ties with Belfast.

Speaker Christine Quinn (Dem) said she would work over the next 12 months to make sure every major university in New York City offers an exchange programme to Belfast students.

“We’ve already started a conversation with CUNY to ask them to explore this idea,” she said.

Ms Quinn said the cities that will weather the toughest economic times will do so because they have great communities.

“Here in New York, we have long taken for-granted the importance of diversity and the key to our success has been found in our distinct neighbourhoods and embracing our differences,” she said.

“We see great potential, power and optimism in the communities of Belfast and we’ll do all we can to grow grassroots connections between our cities.”