SPOTLIGHT u FDI in Ireland
Why Ireland is positioning itself as a technology lighthouse
By Ian O’Hora, Head of Europe at IDA Ireland I
reland’s economy has remained strong over the past year, outperforming almost all other advanced economies, despite the disruption
of Brexit and challenges of COVID-19. The strength of technology capability in all sectors has been instrumental to Ireland’s resilience and growth. The technology ecosystem is diverse, sophisticated and very accomplished. It’s powered by investors from well-known blue-chip enterprises and fast-growth companies from across Europe, the US and Asia Pacific, as well as by excellent research capabilities and a deep pool of talent. And it’s not only technology leaders like Microsoft (see image right), Apple, Ericsson, Liebherr, Siemens and SAP in engineering that have chosen Ireland, but there’s a breadth of technology capabilities and talent across other sectors too, with companies such as Sanofi and Novartis in life sciences, and Mastercard and Stripe in financial services that are investing in Ireland. Other recent investors include
We.Trade, Zalando, AB Agri, TicTok and Wuxi, who have added to that technology pool and talent build-up over the last 35 years or so.
LOCAL TALENT Ireland has one of the youngest populations in the EU, with one third under 25 years of age, and almost a half under 34. Ireland has the highest level of STEM graduates per capita in the EU, and the second highest rate of female graduates in STEM disciplines. The energy and ambition of Ireland’s young population, enabled by strong education system, good public policy and an open, diverse, rich quality of life, all blend together in a very compelling way when companies think about talent. Ireland packs a punch. The European State of
Tech Report 2020 showed that Ireland has one of the highest numbers of software developers per one million inhabitants in Europe and the highest ratio of AI talent across Europe on a per-capita basis. The right high-skill/high-quality talent, with excellent track record, makes Ireland one of the most attractive locations in the world to grow and build a strong business.
ATTRACTION FOR FDI One of the real strengths of Ireland’s foregn direct investment (FDI) attractiveness is the quality of the education system and graduates. Ranked among the top-ten most innovative
6 July/August 2021 Irish Manufacturing
EU countries in the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), Ireland is number one for knowledge diffusion and third for knowledge impact in the Global Innovation Index. Ireland has two Ministers focused on education and growth, development and advancement of school-going children, and another focused on higher education, research and innovation. There’s a clear connectedness and investment in the future, education, skills and talent, for all ages, right across the country.
COLLABORATION
Education with open collaboration and dialogue between IDA Ireland client companies, Ireland’s home-grown companies, government and academia, on strategic goals like skills, the future of work, green economy, advanced manufacturing and digitisation, really works. A great example is the recent, industry-driven €500m Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) for transformative research collaborations between industry, researchers and the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre network. Our clients’ role – businesses that are looking to invest in Ireland, the likes of SAP, Jaguar Land Rover and Microsoft, for instance – and their contribution to EU-wide collaborations best research capabilities, through the ‘Horizon Europe’ €95.5bn budget,
IDA’S FOCUS In January this year, IDA published its new strategy to 2024 and beyond, which focuses on two important competitive factors: transformation through RD&I, digitisation, training and upskilling, and sustainability and the Green Economy. Making Ireland the best country in the world
for sustainable FDI is very ambitious and not without its challenges and, crucially, it maintains IDA’s focus on attracting the next generation of leading investors and companies to grow their businesses in Ireland. This technology ‘lighthouse’ shines bright!
IDA Ireland
www.idaireland.com
www.irish-manufacturing.com
is a tremendous asset to talent and adds depth of capability. It’s one of the reasons Ireland has been so strong on technologies like artificial intelligence and Blockchain, and has seen investments from companies such as Henkel, ABB and Valeo. Early next year, IDA Ireland will open
Ireland’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMC), adding an important strenght and opportunity to its manufacturing and science sectors to trial, adopt, deploy and scale new technologies.
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