DEAR MADAM, - Re: The article by Dr. John Bradley, “Border development zone” dated October 16, 2014.

Reading this article in the Impartial Reporter was like a breath of fresh air trying to blow away the cobwebs of frustration in dealing with the limited economic strategy of the various statutory bodies.

The economic geography of border regions made them very unattractive for an investor, private or otherwise, and it has taken the free trade of the open market to finally begin the task of addressing the issues.

Dr. Bradley has suggested a “border development zone,” my view is that we need to create a free trade area as occurs in many parts of the world and it would operate for a limited lifespan - say about 10 years, and then revert back to its former status.

By granting this status government would not be burdened by the need for large investments as the private sector would take the attractive carrot and after 10 years government would reap the benefits of the new established businesses.

The economic burden borne in border regions has never been properly analysed - factors that would not be considered elsewhere are commonplace - to name a few - cost of postage and couriers to a customer just a few miles away, mobile phone signal more often than not comes from a southern network, inferior internet services, investment in general infrastructure is minimal and the most unheralded factor of all is that everyone needs to operate a dual currency system and with every such transaction comes a few percent points lost.

Thank you Impartial Reporter for giving Dr. Bradley the forum to represent his research and hopefully it will ignite a debate about the route forward.

Finally may I offer the possibility of the Rosslea area - Kilafole/Cooneen to the border, as an opportunity to test the effectiveness of the idea of a free trade area and when it is tried and tested it can be rolled out region by region.

Yours faithfully, JOHN MAXWELL Chairman Rosslea Enterprise Centre Ltd.