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REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE COMPAQ IRELAND TRADE AWARD ROYAL HOSPITAL KILMAINHAM

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE COMPAQ IRELAND TRADE AWARD ROYAL HOSPITAL KILMAINHAM 25 MARCH 1999

I would like to begin by thanking Compaq Ireland and particularly its Director, Tom Keating, for inviting me here today to present this prestigious award. I commend them for their support for this event which has done so much to encourage increased North South business contacts over the last number of years.

This award is important in acknowledging the positive role which trade and business co-operation can make to building reconciliation and peace in Ireland. In so doing, it recognises that building a culture of consensus and co-operation is not something that the politicians alone can achieve. We are all stakeholders in this process and we need the creative energies of everyone if we are to succeed: our politicians, our business and economic leaders, as well as the many strands of civic society which are part of the rich tapestry of modern Ireland, North and South.

The fact that entries in this year’s Compaq Ireland Trade Award have more than doubled, is just one of many indications of increased business contact between companies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Companies on both sides of the border have been assessing new opportunities which come with peace and I am confident that the coming years will see a new era of significant growth in all-Ireland trade and partnership.

We have much ground to make up. There is clear evidence that the years of conflict have been a major barrier to the development of what should have been a dynamic and sustained commercial interaction between North and South. Of all the national frontiers in the European Union, the lowest proportionate level of cross-border trade and trade growth has been between the two economies on this island.

Ireland has one of the fastest-growing export-led economies in the world, but the growth of exports to Northern Ireland has lagged far behind overall export growth. Similarly, sales from Northern Ireland companies into the South have been increasing at a much slower pace than the overall growth of imports into the South.

There is now tremendous scope for stepping up North/South trade. If the opportunities springing from the Peace Agreement are seized by companies North and South, both economies will be transformed, creating thousands of additional jobs throughout Ireland.

IBEC and CBI have led the way in promoting business contacts on a North South basis. Many others have been inspired by them including Government, State Agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and the Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland, Chambers of Commerce, other business organisations and the public sector purchasing teams in both economies. On St Patrick’s Day, I had the opportunity to meet many of the key players from these organisations – people who pioneered and championed cross-border contact and co-operation without the legislative or structural backup of the bodies which are now being set up. I would like to pay tribute to all those individuals who had the courage and foresight to take those first, important steps. We need people like them if we are to build the future of prosperity which now lies within our grasp and which our peoples, North and South, so richly deserve.

The Compaq Award highlights the fact that, in the end, it is the commitment and hard work of individual companies that creates all-Ireland business partnerships. Government agencies and representative bodies vital though they are, can only provide the supporting framework for companies to identify potential partnerships and opportunities.

There has never been a better time for North South business development or for companies from all over Ireland to commence or renew the process of building profitable links in their attractive next door market. I am heartened to hear that many companies are already thinking strategically of Ireland – North and South – as one market and that they are organising themselves to operate as one unit in Ireland. The potential to achieve increased Irish sales is immense. In this context, the all-Ireland market becomes the most important new business development region in the European Union for Irish companies, the base and jump-off point for expanding into the larger European single market.

Increased trade across the border will have the further benefit of accelerating the level of co-operation between companies and agencies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in jointly marketing Irish exports in overseas markets.

It makes huge practical economic sense for companies North and South to work together in a pragmatic way, to sell to overseas buyers and markets. From experience, this kind of co-operation has been successful in terms of promotional impact, spreading costs, generating millions of pounds worth of new business and creating hundreds of jobs that would not otherwise exist.

There is scope for North/South export co-operation to be further extended in the future in a number of ways. Some examples are pooling resources to meet the heavy expense of operating in overseas markets, sharing business leads and contacts and undertaking joint research and market studies. It makes sense to have shared trade missions, to have a combined Ireland stand at major trade fairs and to organise North/South inward buyers visits – and good sense is what good companies thrive on. The potential is limited only by the flair and imagination of those involved. We should exploit every synergy that can build our capacity to win business competitively in overseas markets.

We have an excellent window of opportunity at the present time. After many years of negative media coverage, Ireland as a whole, and Northern Ireland in particular, is enjoying a more positive press, with a focus on opportunity and huge potential in areas like trade, tourism and investment. Since the Good Friday Agreement, Ireland has become a good-news story overseas, evidence that conflict can give way to peace and seemingly irreconcilable differences can be transformed into common purpose and co-operation. That pathway is still strewn with obstacles and difficulties, tragedy and heartbreak. But there is tremendous goodwill and determination on all sides to succeed. I am confident that Irish companies North and South can make the most of this goodwill by building on what has been achieved to date through co-operative export activity and undertake bigger and even substantive initiatives in the future.

I would like to once again thank Compaq Ireland for their support for this event. I would also like to warmly commend the Adjudicators, especially their Chairman, John McKenna, Chief Executive of the IBEC/CBI Joint Business Council. I have no doubt they have had a hard task in selecting the overall winner. Finally I extend my congratulations to the three category winners. I wish you every success in your future business activities.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh.