Ireland still good for business, Cowen tells SmartCamp

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen said yesterday that despite its current difficulties, Ireland is still an ideal location for businesses…

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen said yesterday that despite its current difficulties, Ireland is still an ideal location for businesses that want to work in a dynamic environment. He was speaking at the IBM SmartCamp Global Finals at Dublin’s convention centre.

Cowen said there were “very big issues” to be discussed with the EU, ECB and IMF in the days ahead but the “real economy” in Ireland remained strong and sustainable. “There are still plenty of reasons for confidence in Ireland’s future and potential,” he said.

“We have the youngest population in Europe; the highest proportion of graduates amongst the 25-34 age group in the EU; our exports are performing strongly; our competitiveness has significantly improved and we have clusters of the world’s leading multinational companies.”

EU commissioner for research, innovation and science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn also addressed the audience at the event and said Europe needed more innovation and was changing to make that happen.

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“Innovation is at the top of Europe’s agenda like never before because it is one of the main drivers of the economy,” she said.

“We have the ambition to turn Europe into an innovation union and entrepreneurship is necessary to ensure ideas can be turned into new products and services that create jobs and growth.”

Geoghegan-Quinn said SMEs are going to be a vital source of new employment across Europe in the years ahead and that needed to be encouraged. She said that as part of this the union needed to address a number of long-standing issues that were holding many companies back, including patent reform. “We urgently need to find the solution to the long standing issue of the European patent.

“The cost across each member state effectively amounts to a tax on entrepreneurship and innovation, one that is particularly heavy on SMEs and start-ups,” she said.

Geoghegan-Quinn was at the event to award the title of IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year to one of nine companies from across the world who had already won local SmartCamp competitions. These finalists included Irish company TreeMetrics, which has developed software to help the forestry industry.

Each of the finalists received mentoring and access to industry experts amongst other things, with the winner also receiving $50,000 worth of IBM services.

US company Streetline was named overall winner for its innovative use of low-powered sensors to help drivers locate cheap parking in a city.

Jim Corgel, group general manager at IBM Independent Software Vendor, said there was no unanimous opinion on what was best for encouraging entrepreneurs, but now was a great time to try to do so. “We’re in possibly the largest business opportunity that we’ve ever seen,” he said. “But we have to run quickly towards it because it’s so hard to capture and it’s very serious that we do.”

He said businesses do not grow without support and getting this right was vital.