Budget to fund national digital park

The Government plans to build "an IFSC for e-commerce" in Dublin, with a massive fibre optic connection to a data system spanning the globe. The move, which will be announced in the Budget, is designed to propel the Republic to the fore of the race to capitalise on electronic commerce.

It is understood the dedicated, high-tech centre, to be called the National Digital Park, will be sited at Dublin's CityWest business development.

The centre, according to sources, will be established with Government support and will have its own administration.

This is likely to be along similar lines to the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and be initially answerable to the Department of Finance.

Part of the plan will see the Government invest more than £60 million in a powerful fibre optic cable, linking the Republic to a global broadband network called FLAG. Backed by several multinational companies, FLAG's fibre-optic pipeline already links Japan and other parts of Asia to Europe; the project also plans a transatlantic cable linking Europe to the United States.

Within the Cabinet, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, has championed investment in high-tech infrastructure. She established a telecoms advisory committee, which published a report on the future of electronic commerce here earlier this week.

She has said it is essential that the Republic quickly adopts an integrated approach to developing a role in global e-commerce.

Analysts say the market, based around the Internet, is worth $22 billion (£15 billion) today and is likely to grow to £350 billion by 2002.

"This is the age of the Internet and will be the age of electronic commerce. The pace of development of the Internet and electronic commerce are unprecedented and breathtaking," she said this week.

The minister added that the Republic was already a high-tech economy, the world's second largest exporter of software after the US, and the location of choice for US call and technical support centres located in Europe.

"We now have to find the right way to build on this success and sustain economic growth into the future," Ms O'Rourke added.

The advisory committee - which is made up of Internet and telecommunications industry specialists - said in the report that the Government should "act as a catalyst in developing new international fibre optic connections between Ireland and the main US and European telecommunications centres", adding that this could be done on a public-private partnership basis.

The plan to be announced by the Government in the Budget will broadly follow this route.

The most likely option is that the State will put up a significant amount of the investment cash to jump-start the project and then sell out to private industry at a later stage.