COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
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“There is quite a bit of university-industry collaboration
[where Ireland is ranked 20th] and there is a good availability of scientists and engineers but the backbone of Ireland’s innova- tiveness is reflected in patents. It is punching above its weight, ranked 23rd in terms of patents granted permillion population,” notes Blanke. The countries ranked highly when it comes to innovation in
the study are theUS, Japan, Switzerland, theNordic countries, the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Korea and Taiwan. Other thingsBlanke picks out as being positive about Ireland’s
performance are sophisticated production processes and a re- liance on professional management rather than friends and rel- atives (where it is ranked 12th in the world).
IRELAND’S WEAKNESSES However, there are a number of weaknesses for Ireland which are obvious fromthe report. “The macroeconomic environment is a concern as Ireland
ranks quite low here [118]. The Budget deficit in 2010 following the bailout of the banking sector destroyed a lot of stability that year. It’s looking like things are turning around now however. There is also room for improvement in financial market devel- opment, currently at 115 in the survey. Irelandwas ranked 7th in this area a few years ago,” says Blanke. Ireland is placed last out of all 142 countries in the report in
terms of its government budget balance, as a result of a budget deficit of more than 32pc in 2010, following the government’s bailout of the banking sector. In general with all countries, Blanke says the Centre for
GlobalCompetitiveness and Performance is looking at fiscal im- balances building up and how this could be a danger to future competitiveness – ie countries’ ability to invest in things that are important to future competitiveness, such as education and infrastructure. “Over the past year we’ve also been looking at a new issue –
sustainability and how this relates to competitiveness and will integrate this into the global report. All of this meanswe’re try- ing to assess all kinds of vulnerabilities that might affect com- petitiveness over the longer term.” As its introduction states the Global Competitiveness Report
2011–2012 comes out amidmultiple challenges to the global econ- omy. “After a number of difficult years, a recovery from the eco-
“Ireland has a number of clear strengths. It has an excellent
health and primary education system, is strong in higher edu- cation and training and has well functioning goods and labour markets. In fact its markets are a lot better than a lot of other countries in terms of flexibility and efficiency,” says Blanke. Innovation is one pillar of the researchwhere Ireland is doing
particularly well. It is ranked 16th overall in terms of the qual- ity of its scientific research and 16th on company spending on research and development.
nomic crisis is tentatively emerging, although it has been very unequally distributed: much of the developingworld is still see- ing relatively strong growth, despite some risk of overheating, whilemost advanced economies continue to experience sluggish recovery, persistent unemployment, and financial vulnerability, with no clear horizon for improvement,” it says. “Policy-makers are struggling to find ways to manage the
present economic challenges while preparing their economies to perform well in an increasingly complex global landscape. Given the extensive and necessary short-term efforts related to addressing themost pressing fiscal concerns, it remains critical for countries to establish the fundamentals underpinning eco- nomic growth and development for the longer term.”
Issue 3 Autumn/Winter 2011 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 27
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