Paul Haran Secretary General of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment today (Wednesday, 26 May 1999) launched, on behalf of Tanaiste Mary Harney, the Enterprise Ireland Strategy for the development of Irish business 1999-2001.

"The whole concept behind creating Enterprise Ireland is radical. It involves not just putting in place a new agency, but more importantly it necessitates a whole new way of thinking. The client company must be the prime focus and to achieve that EI is reorienting to become a client focused agency," Paul Haran said.

Paul Haran went on to emphasise that the new approach involves a root and branch reappraisal of the EI organisation itself and of the supports available to business. "We will have failed in our endeavour if this is not done quickly and effectively to achieve the goal set by the Tanaiste - to develop a sustainable competitive advantage among indigenous enterprise leading to significant increase in profitable sales, exports and employment," he commented.

The Secretary General stated that a lot had been done already in refocusing the agency and that the new strategy was building on that work. "What EI have set out for themselves in the strategy is ambitious. I congratulate the Board, senior management and all staff who are involved in a radical reorientation of enterprise policy for the benefit of indigenous business," Mr. Haran said.

The Secretary General said that the key challenges facing indigenous business, which Enterprise Ireland can help with, include: creating profitable new businesses; building share of international markets; harnessing new technologies; deepening R&D capability; and building people skills and capability.

"The ambitious targets set by the Board of Enterprise Ireland, articulated in the strategy published today, signal a step change in the performance of Irish business which will lead to a bigger, more productive, internationally competitive and world class indigenous sector. One of the key drivers to enable the achievement of this enterprise dynamic is the commitment of Enterprise Ireland to seek aggressively to drive up the numbers of new enterprise start-ups with the ambition and potential to rapidly grow sales and exports", he said.

Dan Flinter, Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise Ireland said "Our priority is to assist growth orientated companies in the process of business development, internationalisation, and innovation. Our focus is on solutions and service rather than programmes or products. Each client firm will have a Development Adviser appointed to them to act as a primary point of contact giving the client access to the full range of Enterprise Ireland solutions in an efficient and effective fashion. Solutions will be delivered as part of a structured development process agreed with the client and all aspects of our operations will be driven by our clients' needs".

Dan Flinter said that the core of Enterprise Ireland's vision is that locally controlled businesses trading internationally will have doubled their sales from £20 billion to £40 billion in ten years. "To achieve this growth locally controlled businesses will have: increased is scale, so that the number of middle sized companies with sales of over £20 million will increase from 130 to 260; doubled the annual rate of establishment of new enterprises with the potential to grow rapidly; increased productivity in the small and medium companies from the bottom one third of the EU fifteen to the top five in the EU; doubled the number of businesses which are high performers in R&D; been funded increasingly from venture capital and many will have stock market quotations; developed excellent business systems, a deep knowledge of their markets, highly effective innovation processes and human resource development plans", he said.

In relation to specific growth targets he said "By the year 2001 sales by Enterprise Ireland clients will have increased by 22% to £21.1 billion, exports will have increased by 31% to £8.8 billion, and the resulting jobs will have increased by 9% to 142,000.

To achieve these targets a number of critical things, where Enterprise Ireland can directly make a difference, need to happen in the same time frame: o high potential start-ups 60 o first time exporters 240 o high R&D performers +20% o companies with significant market presence abroad +20% o company training days +35% Our strategy to help clients achieve the substantial change required will involve; an holistic approach to their needs; a refocusing of services in response to client feedback; provision of a 'one stop shop' access to specialist services; fostering start-up enterprise; tracking new opportunities for sales growth and re-positioning of sectors; optimising resources at regional level and in our overseas office network; re-structuring and simplifying our financial instruments; and encouraging further development of the venture capital market," he said.

"Enterprise Ireland aspires to achieve balanced economic growth with the development of a strong Irish industry sector in parallel with development in other sectors. The success of Irish owned businesses over the past five years have been most encouraging. The challenge now is to ensure that this continues into the next decade. We are determined that in partnership with our clients we will meet this challenge", Dan Flinter concluded.