The President of Athlone Chamber of Commerce believes the town is just as attractive as large towns such as Dundalk or Sligo for foreign direct investment.
Alan Shaw made the comments this morning at special webinar for business leaders in County Westmeath, supported by the Chambers in Mullingar and Athlone.
Head of the IDA Martin Shanahan outlined some of the key factors the county has to offer for companies and which makes it attractive including a youthful workforce, the accessibility of the new TUS and well established infrastructures and supports.
The Chamber President says the completion of a 56 acre landbank on the Ballymahon Road will be a major boost to the town's future business development.
''The type of investment that has been made in terms of land banks acquired recently on the Ballymahon road where 56 acres or so of land have been acquired and the master plan around that is as an advanced stage. So we're really looking forward to seeing that progress further. You know, Athlone is now viewed as a similar location to the likes of Sligo, Dundalk and others nationally. And I think we've been performing really strongly over the last number of years with in Westmeath. As Martin alluded to, there are 10% growth and employment in different foreign direct investment space.''
