The Republic must invest in broadband technology and update the skills of workers if it is to remain a successful economy, Forfas, the State advisory board for industrial development, said yesterday. Its annual report adds that sustained economic growth requires rising productivity across every sector.
Forfas's chairman, Mr Tom Toner, said that while the Irish economy had delivered new jobs and increased living standards in recent years, no one should forget that the country also had a proven capacity to create crises for itself. The challenge now, he added, was to build on the success.
"This requires prudent management of the public finances, further reductions in the national debt, a non-inflationary incomes policy, measures to increase the skills levels of the workforce, and urgent action to address the emerging gaps in infrastructure provision arising from the rapid economic growth of recent years," Mr Toner said.
In an apparent call for the continuation of a partnership approach by Government, employers and trade unions, Mr Toner said that, most of all, the Republic needed "a renewed and well-articulated sense of national purpose and cohesion" to deliver further social and economic progress.
Forfas chief executive, Mr John Travers, stressed the need for investment in broadband technology - the next wave of telecommunications networks that allow rapid access to the Internet.
"It is essential that Ireland achieves a leading position in the provision of national and international broadband telecommunications services, ahead of competitor countries, in order to develop as a centre for electronic commerce and digital business, and to drive future economic growth," Mr Travers said.
As well as telecommunications infrastructure, he said, economic growth had outstripped planned provision of roads, land, water and sewage systems, environmental protection, transport and energy.
Forfas said total permanent employment in companies under the remit of IDA Ireland, Forbairt, Shannon Development and Udaras na Gaeltachta increased by a record 16,000, or 6.4 per cent, in 1997.
