I am very pleased to have been invited here today to address the IMI Call Centre Excellence Conference. In just over four years Ireland has emerged as the undisputed leader in the field of pan-European call centres. This is no accident. Since the early 1990's IDA Ireland has been specifically targeting these types of operations and has had phenomenal success to date. In that time over 60 companies have chosen Ireland to establish multilingual teleservices operations. They choose Ireland because of its excellent telecommunications infrastructure, availability of a multilingual and flexible workforce at a competitive cost and the incentives and corporate tax advantages Ireland can offer.

Firms such as IBM, Citibank, Hertz, Gateway 2000, Dell, KAO Infosystems, Best Western, AOL Bertelsmann, American Airlines and UPS have all established centres in Ireland which provide sophisticated and cost-effective solutions to teleservicing needs for pan-European markets.

The strongest growth in net employment is currently coming from the internationally traded services sector, including software, teleservices and financial and shared services. The pace of new job creation in this sector, with nearly 6,500 of all the new jobs created during 1998, accounts for almost two thirds of the total net growth in all IDA Ireland assisted employment.

In 1998 there were 16,000 new jobs created by IDA Ireland assisted companies. This was the highest ever job-creation outcome in one year and means that overseas companies have more than doubled their annual rate of job creation in the last ten years.

Consecutive Governments in Ireland have been committed to maintaining an environment in which all business will flourish. Ireland's track record of achievement and consistency in translating this philosophy into practical and tangible actions is, I believe, particularly noteworthy.

In 1997 Ireland won 24% of all Telebusiness projects into Europe and 39% of all Shared Services Projects. But the business of winning new international investment is tough and getting tougher. Ireland is focusing on delivering the right cost base and the right infrastructure to certain suitable sectors of industry. Evidence of this focus is clear in the initiatives of the Government with dramatically improving roads and transport infrastructure, massive investment in telecommunications, the excellence of our education system, maintenance of a low corporate tax rate and the energy and effort we commit to our participation in the European Union.

Our percentage spend on education is one of the largest in the OECD. Ireland is considered worldwide to be Number 1 in terms of its educational system meeting the needs of a competitive economy.

However, anticipating the increasing needs for skilled people as we enter the next millennium the Government has committed an additional £250m towards educating more software and electronic engineers as well as investing further in language skill development. Ireland is on an irreversible move higher up the value chain as a skills economy. This brings with it an unrelenting demand for ongoing enhancement of the physical and technological infrastructure and the need to continue to expand the range and level of skills in the labour force.

A serious skills shortage began to show signs of emerging worldwide approximately 3 years ago. The Irish Government's response has been rapid and substantial. As a result of a number of initiatives Ireland is now, relative to our competitors, well placed as a high skills economy. An Expert Group on Future Skills has been established. This group identified the needs of various sectors and put together proposals to address these needs so that Ireland will be able to provide the required number and relevant skills to compete successfully.

In February 1997 the Government committed to providing an additional 1,000 college places for teleservices, 1,000 for software graduates and 750 for technicians, per annum. The following April, Schools IT 2000 was launched, involving a Government investment of £30 million over 5 years to support 4,000 schools to acquire IT equipment, training and curriculum materials and connection to the internet. This was rapidly followed by the £250m Scientific and Technological Education (Investment) Fund which was launched in November of the same year.

An example of this investment in practice is the FÁS language training course specifically tailored for the Telebusiness industry. This course incorporates 3 months intensive training in Ireland and 3 months work experience in the country of the language studied. In addition, a certified course in Teleservices has been developed and in 1998, some 1,018 students in 32 centres around the country were studying the NCVA Level 3 International Teleservices course. By almost doubling the number of places and nearly doubling the number of centres in 1998, the Government is clearly signalling its commitment to the development of the teleservices industry. A three year campaign to encourage young people to take up jobs in this rapidly expanding industry, launched by Forfás in 1997, is also continuing.

There is now a formal skills structure in place to monitor and recommend necessary action and we have a total commitment to deliver on skills needs. The projected additional output of skills will help to ensure we excel as a technology hub.

For over 30 years, we have maintained the lowest level of corporation taxes for the Manufacturing and Internationally traded services sector in Europe and this has been key to creating a favourable fiscal climate for overseas investment. Successive Governments have shown their commitment to private enterprise and the growth of industry by the continuing maintenance of this consistently low corporate tax rate.

The move to a 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate on trading profits is designed to ensure the continued flow of investment and jobs in the Irish economy. The agreement will enable the industrial development agencies to plan for the future with the certainty required by an internationally competitive business environment.

A recent report by Forfás noted that in order to fully exploit the opportunities for social and economic development and to secure the benefits of the Information Society for all, the availability of broadband telecommunications infrastructure and services will be critical. In this regard our Government has moved quickly to fully liberalise the telecommunications market in Ireland. This has resulted in a huge increase in levels of infrastructure investment - estimates show an increase from approximately £250m per annum two years ago to approximately £400m this year.

However, the Government also realises that encouraging competition and fully liberalising the market may not be enough. In this regard, my Government colleague, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms. Mary ORourke, recently announced a significant investment package for telecommunications investment supported by EU funding.

For these reasons and many more I am confident that we will continue to attract inward investment, in particular in the teleservices sector and that the target to create over 10,000 jobs in that sector by the end of the year 2000 will be achieved. Conferences such as this will, no doubt, play their part in this success by encouraging best practice. I wish you all an enjoyable and successful conference.