At least 25,000 new jobs could be created in electronic commerce by 2010, the chief executive of IDA Ireland Mr Kieran McGowan has said. However, he has also warned that there is an urgent need to invest in telecommunications infrastructure to create them.
Mr McGowan told the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) annual conference in Dublin yesterday that the Internet revolution is every bit as important as the industrial revolution was in its day. The unprecedented growth of commerce on the Internet is being led by email, he said.
"Some global companies already will only do business with suppliers through their website and new materials' suppliers cannot even approach them through traditional channels," he said.
Mr McGowan said electronic commerce on the Internet is set to grow to $200 billion (£142 billion) by 2001, compared to $2.6 billion in 1996. He said the IDA wanted Ireland to be the Internet capital of the world. "Much of the foundation for our current success in securing inward investment is because of long term strategic decisions made in earlier decades in relation to education, tax and telecommunications structure." He said to succeed in "the new generation of internet-related businesses" we need to be making the strategic and investment decisions on infrastructure and services now.
Mr McGowan said businesses had their own requirements for infrastructure, some of which Ireland has and must retain, and some of which we do not have but which must be put in place.
He said there was an urgent need to provide broadband telecommunications infrastructure where, he said, Ireland was lagging behind competitor countries. "And the gap is widening," he warned.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the IAPF, Mr Paul O'Faherty called for the flotation of state companies, when stakes are being sold off in them. "Privatisation should involve, to a greater extent than seems currently envisaged, flotations on the Irish Stock Exchange," he said.
Mr O'Faherty said this would give the companies better access to diverse sources of capital and increase their operational independence. He said there are only 15 companies with market capitalisations in excess of £500 million on the Irish exchange at present. "A reasonable programme of public flotations could bring this number up to 25 within a few years," he said.
The Labour Party Leader and former Finance Minister, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said that rather than looking abroad, pension funds could find profit and long term growth opportunities in Ireland.
He said that secure bond investments which might pay 1 per cent or 2 per cent more than government bonds could be the way forward.
Mr Dermot Ahern, Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, told delegates that the report of the Pensions Board on the National Pensions Policy Initiative will be published on May 7th.