REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY/DCU INVEST IRELAND 2010 CONFERENCE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY/DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY INVEST IRELAND 2010 CONFERENCE
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to officiate at the opening of this Invest Ireland 2010 joint conference between Arizona State University and the Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship. This gathering of entrepreneurs with new and lively business ideas, and of professional investors with vibrant investment models, is an exciting concept and one that will be viewed with great interest in Ireland particularly at this time as we intensify our efforts to increase our exports and stimulate our domestic economy.
I would particularly like to welcome those of you who have travelled from Arizona. The traditional Irish welcome is yours, céad míle fáilte, one hundred thousand welcomes. Back in December 2008 I had the privilege of visiting the Arizona State University – that was the year that your University and Dublin City University signed a collaborative agreement to act as a framework for their future cooperation. This Conference is visible evidence of the joint effort that began with that agreement and it gives all of us great hope that this harnessing of transatlantic collaboration will flourish in and through the creative partnerships you are helping to generate. You don’t exactly build on a green field site for the social, economic, cultural and political link between Ireland and the United States are legendary and they have created a platform of compatability from which has already come significant and very successful two way investment. But you are looking to the future and to a new generation of US-Irish commercial relationships which your wisdom and intuition will help us to create and develop.
Albert Einstein once remarked that ‘Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere’, and indeed it has been said that the characteristics of a creative mind mirror those of an entrepreneurial mind. As the nation which has produced Nobel laureates in the arts and science and armies of emigrants who build new communities across the globe, we are a race renowned for our originality and imagination. We have one of the highest levels of entrepreneurship in the world with almost half of Irish people wanting to be their own boss. Despite the recession, an extraordinarily high number of Irish people set up their own business last year. In fact, while the word entrepreneur was originally borrowed from the French language, it was first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon.
At times of great economic uncertainty, it is easy and understandable for many people to become risk averse. The can-do culture which prospers during an economic boom is vulnerable to fear and despair when the economic climate becomes more turbulent and challenging. It takes a certain kind of courage and tenacity to stand your ground and to begin to turn over the soil again so that new growth can be encouraged. Some things have swung in our favour. Our cost competitiveness has improved significantly in a range of key business inputs such as energy, property and a number of business services. That is good news for our exporters and for attracting investment. We have a cohort of educated and ambitious workers who really want the chance to shine and put their talents to productive work. They know and we know that jobs come out of that entrepreneurial spirit which you are dedicated to nurturing, supporting and encouraging.
Jobs are not created by spectators or by doing nothing. They are created by people with sound business ideas who can move their ideas skilfully from the drawing board to the factory floor. The more support, mentoring and encouragement those entrepreneurially-minded ideas people receive, the quicker will be the translation from good idea to decisive action. The new entrepreneurs of today need to know that there are many successful people in the business world looking for individuals just like them and projects like their’s to invest in. Both groups of people have much to offer each other – the insight and acumen that only experience can bring and the optimism and audacity of the fresh new entrepreneur. By bringing these together we can create mutually beneficial relationships which create the engines of endeavour through which economic activity begins and gains momentum.
Ireland has a reputation for excellence in so many spheres with a strong focus on internationalisation and innovation driven by cutting edge technology. Our commitment to attracting investors to Irish shores is evident by the recent launch in New York of Innovation Fund Ireland which aims to support enterprise development and job creation by drawing top venture capitalists to our country to invest in innovation-intensive small and medium-sized firms. This Fund provides a unique opportunity for leading international venture capital fund managers to access entrepreneurs and innovative companies here in Ireland and will be a strong driver in the creation of new sustainable jobs in our recovering economy.
Meanwhile, Enterprise Ireland continues to work with, and invest in, a large number of new and expanding Irish businesses. Our membership of the European Union offers access to a rich market of half a billion consumers, with our status as the only native English-speaking member of the Euro an added advantage. Our young people are highly educated, flexible and hard-working and our business culture and attractive fiscal and regulatory environment provide a welcome to outside investors.
Henry Ford has said that ‘Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.’ I hope that today will mark the start of many rewarding ‘coming togethers’ which will progress to successful partnerships and the fostering of new relationships between both Irish and American investors and our Irish entrepreneurs. I believe that this three-day conference signals a new development in the history of US-Irish business and I would like to congratulate all of you involved in this exciting venture. I would also like to thank Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, former President of Dublin City University for his kind invitation to be here with you all today and to wish his successor Professor Brian McCraith well in his new position.
Finally, I hope our American visitors will find some time to enjoy all that Dublin has to offer and I would like to wish you all every success with the important work you will be doing over these three days here in Ireland.