IN PROFILE
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tem, and of course there’s enormous competition because every- body thinksChina iswhere it is at.Undoubtedlywiththe strengths of these economieswe have to establish amarket share there, but it is awork in progress.
CHALLENGING TIMES IDAIrelandhas continuedtodrive investment into Irelanddespite the difficult economic environment, which certainly brings its challenges, O’Leary says. “Right now the global market is
quite volatile of course,” he says. “From an FDI point of view what’s most important is the European and EMEAsituation,becausethat’swhere most of the investment that comes into Ireland from the US targets. There is the need to service those markets. “So right now all the uncertainty
around the euro is not helping confi- dence. That said, we’re seeing a stronger flow of FDI this year than we’ve seen since probably 2002.” This is in no small part thanks to
the sectors into which we have moved in recent years. “In the tech- nology sector there’s plenty of inno- vation going on, in the life sciences there is still new medicines, new medicaldevices coming out and, aris- ing out of restructuring in the global financial services industry, there are still opportunities inthe international financial services arena. “And then one of the great growth
areas is thewhole digitalmedia, dig- ital content, social media, internet space andthe games
area.These sec- tors are growing andwill continue to do so even in a downturn.” He concedes that there is concern
ing campaigns both in Europe and theUS. That increasing level of competitionmeanswe have to be as nimble and fast and awake tonewthings,andtoalwaysestablishaleadershippositionearlyon.” The nature of O’Leary’s role means he travels throughout the
globe,meetingwithCEOs andC-suite executives fromsome of the largest companies in the world. It offers O’Leary a remarkable overviewon business thinking and developments. Until recently, he found himself ex-
plaining Ireland’s well-documented travails but there has been a definite seachange in recentmonths. “If you go back even a year ago,
even to late February of this year, a lot of the conversations you would have around the world would open with around 20minutes of talk about Ireland’s difficulties per se,” says O’Leary. “But certainly from my re- cent trips out into the marketplace that has abated considerably.”
around the outlook for Europe. “The longer it goes onwithout amore per- manent solution, themore likelihood that things will become more diffi- cult. “On the positive side, we’re exposed to the more modern sec- tors of the economy. Thatwill be a strength for Ireland.”
‘Yes there is plenty of competition, but there are also plenty of opportunities. I’m very optimistic that Ireland can continue to attract the biggest and the best’
THE FUTURE FOR FDI O’Leary sayswhat is helping Ireland greatly is that in the first quarter of this year we got three pretty signifi- cant investments. “To be able to say that in the first quarterwe got signif- icant investments from the world’s largest semi-conductor company, the world’s largest internet company and the world’s largest biopharma com- pany, that goes a longway.” O’Leary is referring to investments
this year by Intel, Google and Amgem. “Intel is spendingUS$500m on a construction project to facilitate a new node of technology. Google spentUS$280m– half on its existing building, half on a new building, and subsequently announced another US$100m investment in a data cen- tre. Then Amgem acquired a site here and they’re going to put a sev- eral hundredmillion investment into that. “It’s helpful if you can do that, and then say, ‘By the way, the emerging
companies like Engine Yard and Marketo are investing here as well’.” O’Leary clearly feels the world remains Ireland’s oyster. “Yes
CHALLENGES FOR IRELAND Not that Ireland does not face its own challenges. ”FDI is crucial, it dominates the export performance with about 80pc of all ex- ports coming from the multinationals, and the challenge comes fromthe competition,” saysO’Leary. “Take Germany – it is currently spending heavily on advertis-
there is plenty of competition, but there are also plenty of oppor- tunities,” he insists. “I’mvery optimistic that Ireland can continue to attract the biggest and the best.We’re getting involved very early on in important growth areas like cloud computing and an- alytics, just to name a few, but thatwill be the challenge for us – to stay sharp and always keep an eye on the growth areas.”
Issue 3 Autumn/Winter 2011 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 7
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