I am delighted to be here in Galway this morning to address you all in what is the second in a very important series of nation-wide seminars on E-Commerce being organised by IBEC and the Information Society Commission.

The global communications revolution is changing the shape of the world economy. Dramatic advances in technology and the development of the Internet as a platform for electronic commerce are at the heart of this revolution. Within 2/3 years the Internet will have created a single market of over 300 million computer-based consumers world-wide. The scale of growth forecast for electronic commerce is phenomenal. Today, such transactions are worth $22 bn per annum. However, the value of these transactions is expected to have risen to $350bn per annum, by the year 2002.

Irish business, whether indigenous or foreign owned, must be at the heart of this revolution and access to competitively priced broadband telecommunications infrastructure, not only within Ireland but also connected to the global broadband telecommunications networks, is a prerequisite for Ireland's future economic well-being.

In this regard, our Government decided last year to accelerate liberalisation and competition in the telecommunications sector. We also decided to establish a public-private consortium to negotiate with submarine cable providers to extend to Ireland significant additional bandwidth capacity which would be connected to the global telecommunications infrastructure.

The magnitude of the economic opportunities afforded by the advances in telecommunications technologies, including broadband, has pushed Information Society and electronic commerce issues to the forefront of the Government's agenda and we are determined that Irish business will be well positioned to reap the rewards from these developments.

There is, I feel, huge potential for the internationally traded services sector at regional level, as evidenced by the growth experienced by the sector in the west over the last two years. Information technology companies have set up in remote locations in the West. There are now more than forty companies in the internationally traded services sector in the West Region, of which thirty are in the software and information technology sectors.

In Galway alone there has been a 75% increase in employment in the information technology sector. Over forty new companies, employing in excess of 400 people have been established with State assistance from Enterprise Ireland. Electronic commerce businesses will tend to be attracted to those countries with low cost, high quality telecommunications and Internet services, good business and legal environments for electronic commerce and highly skilled workforces.

Specifically, we must create a facilitatory regime for electronic commerce so as to:

• retain existing businesses which have or which could develop a high telecommunications or Internet dependence,
• promote Ireland's reputation as an attractive location for investment particularly in leading edge electronic commerce projects,
• foster organic growth of strong indigenous electronic commerce companies and the creation of higher added-value, knowledge-intensive, better-paid jobs and
• enhance and underpin the competitiveness of Irish business generally in the face of its competitors elsewhere who are also exploiting the potential of electronic commerce.

Education, skills and training in the area of information technology is also a major priority of this Government and we are sending out clear signals to industry that we are very serious about dealing with future skills needs. The Technology Education Investment Fund is making IR£250m available over a three year period to renew and modernise third level institutions' infrastructure, to develop skills to cope with emerging needs and to invest in promoting innovation. Under the schools IT initiative this Government is investing IR£40m to facilitate the integration of Information Communication technology into Irish schools, including the provision of hardware and support services in schools and skills development for teachers. In addition to this, my Government colleague, the Minister for Education recently announced an additional 5,400 new third level college places in high technology courses over the next 4 years at a cost of £75m.

At another level, FAS has recently launched FIT - Fast track to IT - an initiative to help long-term unemployed persons to secure a job in the IT industry and help meet emerging skill shortages. The FIT Initiative was set up with key IT industry participation. Companies such as, Corel, Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec , IBM and CSC are all part of this exciting new initiative. The proposal is to recruit 3,500 long term unemployed persons over three years into areas in the IT industry experiencing skill shortages. It is intended to develop industry recognised training and certification under the aegis of the participating FIT companies.

No business is isolated from either the opportunities or the threats in the on-line world of the information society. In many cases, the use of new technology is vital for an organisation just to remain competitive. At the same time, opportunities for global business, and business involving business partners, are newly available at affordable cost. In all cases, optimum use of all capabilities depends on organisations being ready to examine new ways of working.

The Internet is having both a direct and indirect effect on the way in which consumers buy what they need and the way that businesses communicate with them and respond to their various needs.

In addition, Electronic Commerce can improve efficiency and effectiveness through lower costs and better interaction between customer and supplier. The business process is quickened and sales channels improved. Information or transactions take place at the customers convenience. The internet is never closed for business and there are no location difficulties. The web is always open for business and business is booming, right across all sectors.

Once again I would like to sincerely thank IBEC and the Information Society Commission for organising this E Commerce Business Awareness Campaign. I am sure through the course of the morning that you will all see through the case studies how E Commerce has the power to open up new markets, reduce administration costs and increase profits.

Based on an advanced telecommunication network with global connectivity, and a proper facilitatory regime our goal is to position Ireland as a significant hub for electronic commerce activity early in the new millennium and everyone here in this room can become part of this new economic boom and impart that singular message to the populous at large.