SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND MARY McALEESE AT THE ENTERPRISE IRELAND BUSINESS BREAKFAST
SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND MARY McALEESE AT THE ENTERPRISE IRELAND BUSINESS BREAKFAST IN THE INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen
I am delighted to be here with you this morning in this captivating and historic city. I am truly impressed and grateful to see such a good attendance from members of the Greek business community at this unsociable hour. Hopefully between us we will shake off that early morning sleepiness and create an atmosphere of bustling friendship and enthusiastic business dialogue, for in Ireland the two go together. Business builds on friendship and I am delighted to have this chance to help forge new friendships and deepen old ones knowing that in so doing we are building the causeway to shared prosperity for the peoples of both Greece and Ireland. It is marvelous to have this opportunity of meeting with Irish companies operating in Greece and their Greek customers and partners and I am very grateful to Enterprise Ireland, the trade and technology board of the Irish Government for arranging this morning’s very fine event in such pleasant company and lovely surroundings.
Business today is cut-throat in its competitiveness. In our globalised marketplace orders are won and lost on the basis of straight commercial criteria made all the easier and more transparent, with the introduction of the Euro. Yet commerce even over the internet is between human beings and trust is an essential basic component of good business. Trust is earned. The better we know each other, the deeper the level of mutual understanding, the greater the trust and the greater the trust the more confident we are in exploiting the business opportunities that partnership offers, the more intuitive we are too in identifying those opportunities.
Greece and Ireland view each other from opposite sides of our common European homeland. Divided by many miles we are joined by a web of history and by our contemporary shared membership of the European Union. In the past our economic co-operation has been restricted somewhat by distance and difficulties of communication, but recent developments in information technology and communications have considerably eroded the significance of these factors. Ireland’s experience has shown that being on the periphery need no longer mean being out of the mainstream. Our former insularity has been replaced with a strong export focused economy, which has long since transcended the limitations of a small domestic market. Our companies trawl all corners of the globe in search of market opportunities and they travel with the confidence that comes from a growing wealth of experience, a technologically sophisticated and competitive supply base and a hunger to develop the new markets on which our future economic success will rest. It would be wrong to underestimate the physical barriers that inhibit the development and growth of trade. But equally as the first generation, which can communicate, buy and sell, in real time we have to be alert to the potential this new era offers for bilateral economic co-operation and making plans to capitalize on it to the benefit of both our peoples.
For Ireland, as for Greece, international trade is a key driving force of our economy. After Singapore and Hong Kong, Ireland registered the highest per capita merchandise exports in the world in 2000, reflecting the vitally important place of international trade and investment in the Irish economy. We are now ranked as the 38th largest economy in the world but the 22nd largest exporter in absolute terms; with the value of Irish merchandise exports increasing by 25% to EUR 83.6 billion in 2000.
That pattern of exceptional export development is the primary stimulus of our overall economic growth, our improved living standards, enterprise development and our attraction for foreign investors – and above all our impressive job creation. Trade is our business and almost all the diverse activities of our economy are ultimately focussed on the international marketplace.
Ireland and Irish companies, have relevant background experience in working with partners in Greece. We have faced the challenges, the difficulties and the opportunities that any country confronts when it embarks on a major new direction. From the 1970s onwards, Ireland made the transition from what was an essentially inward-looking, protected economy, with exports largely made up of agricultural commodities, to a high-tech, export-led industrial economy that is today one of the fastest growing in the world. Irish companies are now becoming significant investors abroad themselves, and this is a hallmark of how far we have come in our economic development
The creation of a whole new enterprise culture in Ireland is undoubtedly the most dramatic aspect of the country's economic success story. Having relied largely on overseas investment and multinational set-ups to form a new industrial base, we have taken it from there. In software, for example, there were only a handful of Irish-owned companies in the early 1990s. Today, there are over 600, specialising in everything from localisation to e-commerce, and most are exporting their products and services.
Software is perhaps the most outstanding success story of Ireland’s economy. The OECD reports that Ireland has overtaken the United States to become the world's number one exporter of software products, with annual exports of close on $4 billion. Irish software companies employ over 20,000 graduates – a number that is expected to double over the next four years. More than 60% of all PC package software sold in Europe is now produced in Ireland.
In Greece, Irish companies have been successful because they offer high quality products and business solutions that are tailored to specific customer requirements. Ireland’s young, innovative, high-tech companies have been successful in competitive international markets by demonstrating imagination and professionalism. They invest heavily in product development and international marketing. They understand what is needed to gain competitive advantage in a global marketplace dominated by big players. They have excellent product and service capabilities as well as a very real flair for building strong relations with their customers.
As is happening in Ireland, a new breed of company is rapidly emerging in Greece that is drawing on well-educated native talent and supported by overseas investment and know-how. These companies are positioning themselves to compete with the best in Europe, and would make excellent partners with like-minded Irish companies.
There are a number of substantial infrastructural projects in Greece funded by the EU, where Irish companies can offer highly relevant experience, in areas such as construction, project management, energy and communications, transport and healthcare projects. We are also actively examining how Irish companies can make a quality contribution in terms of the Athens Olympics in 2004. The preparation of the Games is a huge undertaking, but it also promises to be a huge driver of your economy. I would like to wish you every success with the Games and hope that they will represent a pivotal point in the further development and prosperity of this country.
Both our nations have a great love for education. Classic Greek literature has not only provided a basis for our educational system, it has taught us to love method and logic. We have taken our love of education in new directions and to new heights. 13.5% of our total public expenditure goes on education, which is much higher than most of our EU partners. The proportion of young people in the 25-34 cohort with higher education qualifications I am pleased to say, is the second highest in the EU.
Knowing Greece’s age-long love of learning, it does not surprise me that among EU members, Greece has one of the very highest proportions of its students studying abroad. With the number of third level Irish students beginning to decline for demographic reasons, Ireland has a lot to offer Greece at this level. I am aware that Greece has the highest number of students of any country sitting the Cambridge English exams. Ireland has also earned for itself a very good reputation as a centre for the learning of the English language and I would invite you to perhaps look a little further west in the future. The Greeks are well used to island-hopping and I would hope that you would perhaps hop just one island more! Representatives of several Irish schools are present here this morning and I hope you will take this opportunity to meet with them. Like me they will take pleasure in reminding you that in the twentieth century four Nobel Laureates in Literature were awarded to Irish writers writing in the English language, three of them from Dublin where legend has it that the best English is spoken.
The Greeks and the Irish share a love of good food. While Ireland’s reputation in the high-tech sector is well known, the fact that we are a large scale producer of a wide range of food products is sometimes overlooked. The food industry is still Ireland’s largest indigenous industry and Irish food exporters consider that there are many excellent opportunities for co-operation between the food sectors in both countries. I knew that Greeks are the greatest cheese eaters in the world, but I had not expected to find that Greece is the largest market for Irish cheese after the UK, much of it under the Kerrygold
Regato label and this is a good example of how Irish producers and Greek distributors can co-operate in producing products specifically for a national market. Sales of our smoked salmon are small but growing and Irish drinks too are generally available on the Greek market.
Both Greece and Ireland depend heavily on tourism and both of us have been hard hit by the effects on traveller confidence of the events of September 11. Many thousands of Irish people visit Greece every summer and there is every indication that the numbers of Irish visitors to Greece this year will not be affected by September 11. I am pleased to see that the traffic is not all one way and increasing numbers of Greek tourists are showing an interest in Ireland. We hope that Greek tourists will now find Ireland even more attractive as we are the only English-speaking country in the eurozone. Tourism Ireland, which is the new all-Ireland organization for the promotion of tourism, sees considerable potential in the Greek market.
Our host today, Enterprise Ireland, is actively supporting Irish companies through a range of initiatives to build market awareness and accelerate sales growth throughout Europe. Their role is to ensure that the business partners, customers and associates of Irish companies are fully informed of the benefits of trading with Ireland.
I invite Greek businesses to make full use of the resources of Enterprise Ireland. It exists to help Ireland by helping you and by helping you we help Greece. We operate in markets and sectors that are characterised by rapid and dynamic change. International partnership is a key component of this, and Irish companies are increasingly involved in sourcing relationships, strategic alliances, joint ventures, product/process licensing and collaborative R&D with international partners. From these come jobs. From jobs come prosperity and real choices in people’s lives. We want the best future for our Irish and Greek children. They are relying on us to use our imaginations and our opportunities well. That is why I am here. That is why you are here. Between us we can make sure that Ireland and Greece are leaving no stone unturned in finding the pathway to the best future our peoples have ever known.
Thank you for your warm welcome to me today. I have greatly enjoyed my time here and I will leave your country with many fond memories of my visit.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.