ADDRESS BY MR. NOEL TREACY T.D. MINISTER FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & COMMERCE AT THE EUROMAP IN IRELAND SEMINAR ON E-COMMERCE & HUMAN LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGIES ON FRIDAY 18TH DECEMBER, 1998

I am delighted to be here this morning at this EUROMAP in Ireland Seminar on electronic Commerce and Human Language Technologies.

EUROMAP is all about language technology. It is a European Commission-supported project dedicated to promoting greater awareness of language technology in the emerging Information and Communication Society.

The goal is to help researchers, developers, suppliers and users of language technology to prepare for the fifth European Union Framework Programme for Research and Development.

As Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, it is my responsibility to represent Ireland in negotiations for Research & Development Programmes at European level.

As many of you will be aware, negotiations have been on-going for a considerable time. I am glad to be able to tell you that I expect, within the next few days, that these negotiations will lead to the adoption of the Fifth Framework Programme for Europe for the period up to the year 2002.

The new Framework Programme will provide for funding of almost 15 Billion ECU or 12 Billion Irish Pounds for the entire range of research within the Union.

I don't intend this morning, to go into the ins and outs of the different programmes that will be included within the Fifth Framework Programme. But I know that the area which will be of primary interest to all of you attending this seminar here this morning will be the new Information Society Technologies Programme which is also known as the User Friendly Information Society Programme.

This Programme will have a budget of 3.6 Billion ECU or nearly 3 Billion Irish Pounds to be spent throughout Europe to promote research, technology development and demonstration projects in this very important field for the future of Europe.

Within that overall budget there are two Key Actions which I expect will be of particular interest to you. These are the Key Actions concerned with new methods of work & electronic commerce and with the field of multimedia content and tools, which includes the area of Human Language Technologies.

I believe that Ireland is in a good position to participate actively in these particular Key Actions and I expect that many of you will be in a position to compete successfully for projects under these two areas.

Your seminar is focusing on the opportunities in the areas of both Electronic Commerce and Human Language Technologies.

The Human language Technologies area is perhaps an area that does not receive the same level of public recognition as Electronic Commerce. I know however that it is an area in which there has been an interest taken by Irish researchers going back several years, particularly among researchers based in our Universities. It is an area that has even more importance now for Ireland in view of the development here of the software localisation industry and the very significant development of various types of Call Centres in different parts of Ireland.

Ireland has now firmly established itself internationally as the leading world centre for software localisation. There are more than 5,000 people employed in software localisation with many of the key players in the sector located here. Over 40% of all packaged software and 60% of business applications sold in Europe are produced here in Ireland.

And since the early 1990's the teleservices industry has also grown dramatically in Ireland. Today there are more than 50 non Irish owned call centres in operation and the industry now employs over 6000 people. The teleservices industry is expected to continue to grow with employment set to almost double the current level by the end of the year 2000.

I think that we in Ireland should seek not only to participate in international research work in the area of Human Language Technologies, but we should also seek to have the results of this important work applied as early as possible in the operations of our companies in both the software localisation and our Call Centre industries.

Overall, Electronic Commerce is rapidly developing and I am keenly aware that it will be increasingly important to the competitiveness of all sectors of the economy and is likely to impact on the dynamics of competition in all markets.

At Government level there is a strong recognition of the importance of the whole area of electronic commerce for economic prosperity in the future. I believe that this recognition is shared widely among companies in Ireland. It is the policy of the Irish government to take a pragmatic approach and to facilitate in every way that it can the development of this activity.

Because of the global nature of e-commerce it is generally accepted that a co-ordinated approach by Governments, the private sector and international organisations is necessary to resolve the issues impacting on its development and growth. The EU is doing much in this area in order to advance the process of building international consensus and Ireland is actively participating in this work.

I am committed, as is this Government, to ensuring that we put in place the infrastructure and policy framework required for Irish-based enterprises and the Irish economy to secure the full benefits of e-commerce for wealth creation and employment growth. Over the last eighteen months a number of key studies and actions have been undertaken to assess the potential impact of its growth.

The development agencies have been targeting new business and employment opportunities in the key information technologies sectors and the development of new IT enabled sectors such as call centres and they continue to target projects in both new and emerging e-commerce sectors.

As part of the establishment of Enterprise Ireland in July of this year, the list of designated services sectors eligible for State assistance was expanded to explicitly include electronic commerce activities.

I am confident that this will provide the development agencies with the policy framework and supports needed to assist enterprises that are or have the potential to develop competitive internationally trading electronic commerce businesses.

In addition, the IDA has recently concluded an agreement on the establishment of the City West Digital Park. This investment is an excellent example of a joint public/private partnership. The Park will have a modern state of the art telecommunications infrastructure which will facilitate companies positioned in the e-commerce business area that require significant broadband facilities. This facility will be suitable for use by both indigenous and overseas companies. Plans are also progressing with a view to establishing a city centre digital park.

A number of major initiatives have been taken at national level to further develop competition in the telecommunications sector which is central to ensuring the growth of e-commerce in Ireland. In this regard, I believe that the full liberalisation of the telecommunication market, which came into effect on 1 December last, will significantly facilitate the growth of e-commerce in Ireland.

This Government has also been extremely active in developing proposals for the provision of a highly skilled labour force to meet the evolving demands for information technology industries. These efforts will be intensified to ensure that Ireland remains the location of choice for a large number of multinational companies in the emerging e-commerce business areas.

The companies that are participating in your seminar today are in themselves an indication of the significance of this whole field.

You will recall that during President Clinton's visit to Ireland, the President and our Taoiseach Mr. Bertie Ahern, T.D., signed a Joint US-Ireland Communique on Electronic Commerce. This was the first occasion where such an inter-Governmental Communique was approved using the technology of electronic signatures. I think that this signing clearly signalled the intention of this Government to ensure that Ireland will be to the fore globally in this very important area of modern business.

I am pleased to see that a representative of the company which was particularly involved in that signing, Baltimore Technologies, is featuring on the programme for this seminar.

You may wish to note that on 26 January next, a "Fifth Framework Programme Fair" will be held here in Dublin. This will be the main national event for those researchers wishing to participate in the various programmes and in seeking to find suitable partners.

Leading speakers from the Commission have been invited to speak about the Fifth Framework Programme in detail and anyone interested will be very welcome to attend.

In conclusion, I would like to wish you a successful Seminar and I hope that the exchange of information about human language technologies will help you to prepare for opportunities for collaborative R&D under the forthcoming Fifth Framework Programme.