BALLYMENA Councillor Deirdre Nelson has returned from a Sister Cities Conference held in Kansas last month to defend the controversial initiative in which the local Council is involved.
The DUP Councillor hit back at claims that such trips were junkets and said the delegation from Ballymena has worked hard to make contacts and raise the profile of the town to their American counterparts.
In a statement posted on her Councillor in
fo website Cllr. Nelson said: "It is due to the hard work of many councillors and council officers throughout Northern Ireland working together despite political differences that we have made such an impact.
We all worked and networked incredibly hard to make contacts and meet attendees and persuade them to come and visit us next summer either before or after the actual conference.
"There are those who feel that this kind of venture is merely an excuse for councillors to have a junket, let me assure you nothing could be further from the truth. Northern Ireland is no longer a primarily manufacturing economy and if we wish to replace this loss then civic representatives and the business community must get out and show the world what we have to offer.
"We are not in the fortunate position of being able to sit back and wait for the job offers to come flooding in, we need our CV out there on the radar of the movers and shakers which is why our attendance at events like this is possible."
The statement can be read in full on the Councillor's website which can be found at: http://www.councillor.info/ballymena/deirdrenelson/The full article contains 276 words and appears in Ballymena Times newspaper.
