Address by Mr. Noel Treacy, T.D.Minister for Science, Technology and Commerceat the Launch of the Irish Exporters Association"Websites for Exporters" Directory on Wednesday, 5th July, 2000 at 12. 30 p.m. in the Ocean Restaurant, Charlotte Quay Dock, Ringsend, Dublin 4

I am delighted to have been asked to attend today’s official launch. Behind all the hype that fills the newspapers almost every day about electronic commerce, there is a significant message for trading countries. The message is clearly that if you want to develop your trade further, if you want to gain new customers and add value to the service which you provide to existing customers, the new electronic media are vital to your future. It won’t do the job by itself, but in the near future it will be as indispensable as the phone or the fax.

It will also be absolutely crucial to Ireland because we are a trading nation. We have a small and very open economy. The statistics are very clear :

• According to the OECD, Irish exports grew by an annual average of 15.9% between 1994 and 1999 ; that’s more than double the OECD, EU and Euro area averages.
• In the same period, our export growth outpaced the growth in world trade by a factor of three.
• In 1999, Irish merchandise exports were worth 78% and 89% of GDP and GNP respectively ; outside Benelux, the EU average is 20 - 30%. And in fact, exports of goods and services combined were worth 86% and 98% of GDP and GNP respectively.
• About 70% of Irish manufacturing output is exported, and our trade surplus last year amounted to approximately £18 billion - it was £5 billion as recently as 1993.

When you hear these figures, you realise the reasons that the WTO ranked Ireland as the third largest exporter in the world on a per capita basis in 1998, after Singapore and Belgium/Luxembourg.

This openness to trade is a key factor of the Irish economy. By being open to trade, we have developed the competitiveness, flexibility and innovative culture that characterise our succesful companies.

Trade will continue to be a vital element in our economic development in the future. And that means that Irish companies must not only ensure that their products and services are of a winning quality, but they must also use the best means available to them to present and deliver their product and manage their customer relations. The internet is more and more being seen as a tool that adds value in these areas.

While companies are responsible for establishing their own paths, the Government has a very important support role in ensuring that the possibilities are available to companies to develop. The Government does this in several ways. First of all, since being restructured Enterprise Ireland has completely changed to ensure that it works with companies to help them develop in all areas of activity. Enterprise Ireland is now in a position to provide assistance to business at all stages of development, and in all fields from finance to marketing, from managing exchange rate risk to providing advice on developing a strategy for coping with and taking advantage of the challenges and opportunities involved in e-commerce.

Enterprise Ireland’s services are offered by its network of offices in Ireland and abroad. The offices abroad will be of particular importance to many of you here today, as exporters, as they provide services which assist Irish companies to penetrate foreign markets and to develop those markets to the fullest.

In addition, Enterprise Ireland has been working with Irish companies to develop effective e-commerce strategies. A series of workshops and seminars, in conjunction with an awareness campaign and the eBusiness fund, will help to alert the business community to the new opportunities ahead.

In other ways too we are working to ensure that the economic growth which we have seen over the past decade is sustained in the future.

The National Development Plan, which will run from this year to 2006, will see a large investment in infrastructure. Our plans to spend £4.7 billion on national roads and £2.2 billion on public transport will help to ease the bottlenecks which have developed and to permit you, the exporters, to make further improvements in productivity.

By putting significant resources into direct broadband links with Europe and the USA, the Government has laid the foundation which will permit Irish business to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the new technologies. Additional private sector projects will enhance this connectivity even further.

In the new electronic economy, knowledge is all important and if we are not in a position to supply people with the knowledge required, we will not keep up with our competitors. For that reason, we also plan to put considerable resources into our education system to ensure that it serves the needs of business.

We have also put in place a coporate tax regime which we believe will serve the interests of trade best.

Having said all that, it is probably true that the most important role of Government in supporting trade is to ensure legal certainty. With the passage of the E-Commerce Bill last week, Ireland is now well ahead of most of our competitors in preparing industry for the advent of electronic trading.

Although the new bill has received a lot of publicity, it is worth recalling the reasons that this bill is so important to our economic future. It underpins electronic trade by providing legal certainty. Electronic signatures, electronic contracts and othe electronic writing will all have the same fully recognised legal status as conventional formats.

This is a proud achievement. By putting ourselves ahead of so many others we have not only helped to give business here a significant competitive advantage, we have also given a clear and open signal of our intention to take full advantage of the many opportunities of the new digital economy.

This signal has been acknowledged internationally, as the level of interest in what we have done is substantial.

Now, I hope, you will make the next move. Because behind all the hype about the internet and e-commerce and the new economy there is a steadily developing reality: the internet as a tool for business is here to stay, and if you want to compete, you need to use it well.

The possibilities offered by the internet are enormous. Already many large companies are using the internet to manage their relationships with customers and suppliers better. Faster response times, clearer communication flows and improved information circulation can all permit businesses to react more quickly to their customers needs and to let their suppliers know of their needs much sooner than heretofore.

Companies are also increasingly using the internet as a tool to source new suppliers and customers. Likewise customers are more and more making use of the information freely available on the web to manage their purchasing. After all, a website does permit any company to market itself globally.

New ways of doing business are already emerging as a result of the growth in the web. E-mail has revolutionised the way companies communicate; it’s now easier and faster to send large amounts of information to anywhere in the world. This also creates the expectation that companies will now respond much quicker.

The challenge of using the internet as a trading tool is to be able to take full advantage of the many possibilities which it presents. I said earlier that the internet will soon become as indispensable to business as the phone or fax. But like the phone and fax, a website will not by itself bring in business. It is vital to manage the website well and to ensure that the back-up in the way of the service provided on foot of electronic contacts meets demanding expectations. Your world wide window is the first contact, but it’s the follow up that will win customers.

It’s for that reason that I am so pleased to have been able to be here today to officially launch this guide. The Irish Exporters Association has taken a welcome and important initiative by starting the process of clarifying the mystery about trading on the web by producing this booklet, ‘Internet Sites for Exporters’.

This new booklet offers a clear and concise guide to the whys and whats of using the web. It also identifies the value of using the web as an extra tool in getting the message of your company to the wider world.

I would like to thank the Irish Exporters Association for providing this service and I hope that all of you will take its message to heart immediately.