REMARKS BY THE President OF IRELAND, Mary McAleese for the Business Breakfast in the Hyatt Hotel
REMARKS BY THE President OF IRELAND, Mary McAleese for the Business Breakfast in the Hyatt Hotel, Warsaw
Go raibh maith agat as ucht an fáilte croíúil sin
“Dziękuję za miłe słowa powitania”
I am delighted to be here this morning and to have the opportunity to meet with so many leading Irish companies and their Polish customers and partners. This event, organised by Enterprise Ireland to mark this very significant trade delegation to Poland, is a unique opportunity to meet and network, and also to celebrate the increasing trade between both our countries. I hope that you will all enjoy the morning and use it as a chance for us to get to know each other better, and to strengthen relationships for the future.
To our Polish guests this morning, I am pleased each of you accepted our invitation to join us this week and wish you a very traditional Irish "Céad Míle Fáilte" - a hundred thousand welcomes. To my compatriots, can I say that I am conscious of the time you have committed to be here and I sincerely hope that this visit will be of real value for both you and your Polish partners. I would also particularly like to welcome both the representatives and the guests of An Bord Bia-the Irish Food Board, and the Irish Dairy Board.
The size and level of this trade mission reflects Ireland's commitment to Poland, our most important market in this developing region. Less than a year from now, Ireland will have the honour - as President of the EU - to welcome the accession of Central and Eastern European countries into full EU membership. Poland is shortly to decide if it will be among them and I wish you well in that historic decision. Whatever the outcome, we in Ireland already see Poland as part of our shared European history and as part of our shared future.
The diversity of participation in this trade mission and in this morning's attendance demonstrates the strong connections already forged by Irish companies with Poland. Several hundred indigenous Irish companies are currently trading with Poland and in the last ten years Irish exports to Poland have been growing at a rate in excess of 25% per annum. Last year our trade together exceeded 400 million Euro and there are representatives of more than 50 Irish companies here this morning, all willing and anxious to improve on these impressive statistics.
During the past decade Irish companies have invested more than 1.2 billion Euro in Poland and they now employ over 12,000 Polish people. Those figures indicate that we are clearly comfortable in this competitive region with its well-educated and skilled inhabitants,its regulated business environment and crucially its climate of openness to international business. Perhaps most important of all, Irish companies have been impressed with the quality, calibre and adaptability of their Polish employees. It is marvellous to see representatives of these leading investors here this morning and to be able to say that for Ireland, Poland is a good place in which to do business!
Irish people know well just how hard a struggle it is to transform a country’s economy. We joined the then EEC thirty years ago as a poor peripheral and small nation with an underdeveloped economy, a heavy reliance on low or no added value farm commodities and local export markets, a longstanding culture of emigration and endemic high unemployment. Our average income per head was then 60% of the European Union average. Today it stands at 130% of the European Union. The most remarkable feature of our economic transformation from a poor low-tech country to prosperous high tech and highly globalised economy is that it has happened within such a relatively short time. Many people ask how it was achieved and in truth there is no one answer but rather a judicious combination of factors from investment in education and technological innovation, to promotion of social partnership, from a benign corporate tax regime attractive to inward investors to the strategic deployment of EU structural and cohesion funds. A new self-confidence has given birth to a strong indigenous entrepreneurial cohort who are themselves today the ninth most important source of foreign investment in the United States and significant investors in Europe, including of course Poland.
The Irish economy has enjoyed continuous growth for more than a decade, averaging over 8% a year for the past five years. Our exports as a percentage of GDP are among the highest in the world and we export right across the globe with a diversified portfolio of products and services many of them in the high tech sectors. Of course the downturn in the global economy has affected us as it has the rest of the world and our projected growth rates for the coming two years will be more modest, of the order of 4-5%.
Conventional wisdom would have it that our very openness as an economy has left us particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of international growth. However, Ireland's success in recent years stems not just from the benefits of foreign investment inflows and export growth, crucial as they are. Rather it is built upon a cultural shift towards innovation, competitiveness and entrepreneurship across all sectors of the economy. And this is reflected in the commitment of foreign companies to Ireland and their willingness to move up the value chain in production terms. Companies such as Intel have expanded investment in production facilities in Ireland in recent years at a time of considerable uncertainty in the IT industry – surely a vote of confidence in what Ireland has to offer.
We recognise in Ireland that to remain competitive, we need to constantly move up the value chain and encourage more investment in research and development. The Government established Science Foundation Ireland three years ago with the aim of creating a world-class research base in the country by attracting top international researchers and scientists. We also need to continue to foster the new spirit of innovation – because we realise that the cultural shifts which favour business development are perhaps as important as the physical infrastructure investment and regulatory changes that we have introduced. Education, and in particular a focus on new technologies, business disciplines and science will play a crucial part in this respect.
The composition of Irish trade with Poland aligns closely with the leading manufacturing sectors in Ireland. The most heavily traded merchandise categories are data processing and telecommunications equipment. Ireland exports a wide range of manufactured articles to your market, and imports a large volume of transport equipment. When you add the export of international traded services such as software and consultancy services, which are of significant importance, it is clear that our trade relations with this region are firmly established and ready to jump to a new and exciting phase. In addition, there are significant local sales being generated in Poland by the local operations established here by Irish companies. According to a recent Enterprise Ireland survey, Irish companies now have a turnover of some 850m Euro per annum in Poland.
As many of you already know, Ireland offers excellent opportunities to Central European companies seeking business partnerships. Enterprise Ireland has considerable experience in working with Irish companies and potential partners in facilitating strategic alliances, joint ventures, product licensing and collaborative R&D. Their office in Warsaw is staffed by a mix of Irish and Polish professionals and has over 40 years of accumulated experience of developing business for Irish companies on the Polish market. The office is here to help you find and develop contacts with world class Irish suppliers.I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the key role of the Embassy of Ireland based in Warsaw in the development of Ireland's trade and economic relations with Poland. I know that Ambassador Doran, her predecessors, and the staff at the Embassy, have been very energetic in supporting the work of Enterprise Ireland and the other State agencies in promoting two-way trade and investment.
As Europe moves forward confidently and ambitiously into one of its most exciting and transformative phases, I am certain that Ireland and Poland, already trusted friends and colleagues to one another, will continue to put our shared experiences at the service of the prosperity of both our peoples. Generations of young people rely on our leadership and our friendship to give them good futures, good lives. Today’s gathering is an outward sign of Ireland’s commitment to Poland and Poland’s to Ireland. There is a saying in Ireland that “two shortens the road”. We look forward to shortening the road to widespread prosperity in Ireland and Poland through strong and successful commercial partnerships between our business sectors.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.
“Dziękuję bardzo”.
(Thank you very much).