TANAISTE URGES CONTINUED INVESTMENT IN HIGH- TECH COMPANIESEnterprise Ireland supports over 1,700 new jobs £2 BILLION ( € 2.54bn ) SALES BY HIGH- TECH SECTOR0VER £1 BILLION ( € 1.27bn ) IN EXPORTS IN 2000

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Mary Harney, today (Wednesday 16 May 2001) announced that, in the 12 months to the end of March 2001, total investments of £54 million ( € 68.57m ) had been made by 41 Irish owned companies in expansions and start-up projects in the International Services Sector.

These investments, all of which enjoy the support of Enterprise Ireland, will lead to the creation of more than 1700 new jobs over the next two to three years. In addition, Enterprise Ireland supported research and development investments of £10 million ( € 12.7m ) in 17 high-tech companies in the same period.

The Tánaiste was speaking at an Enterprise Ireland Forum "Creating Creative Industries" at the Guinness Storehouse in the heart of Dublin’s new digital media district. The forum focused on building competitive Irish digital media companies with global capability and other speakers included Dr. Edward de Bono and Frank Boyd of BBC Online.

Commenting on the Review of EI activities in the sector the Tánaiste said: "The Irish owned internationally traded services sector is a substantial contributor to wealth creation in the economy and is a significant vehicle for employment growth. While I acknowledge that technology companies are operating in a more difficult environment, these figures demonstrate that the international services sector is likely to remain a key-growth area. The 58 companies supported by Enterprise Ireland are mainly in the categories of eBusiness, financial services, telecommunications and new media".

The Tánaiste continued "The availability of venture capital, particularly at the high risk early stage development of these companies, is critical. The current tightness of the VC market is all the more reason for Enterprise Ireland to bridge the gap until more normal cycles return. The high number of start-up companies is particularly indicative of the strength of the sector. The Government is committed to the further development of the sector and, through Enterprise Ireland, will continue to invest in and support additional start-up projects. New High Growth Start-Ups are a key ingredient of any successful economy and will continue to be one of the major building blocks in the ongoing expansion of Ireland’s knowledge based industry".

Peter Coyle, Director of Enterprise Ireland said: "Despite the current climate, EI is determined to seriously ramp up the numbers of new high-tech start-ups. We want to see the average annual rate of start-ups rise from 40 currently to 60 over the next two years. The ITS 2007 Strategy, identified the key growth areas as; Digital Media; Informatics; eBusiness; and Health Science. Our aim is to increase the scale of the Irish owned sector to £4 billion ( € 5.08bn ) in sales by 2007".

INTERNATIONAL SERVICES R&D APPROVALS

Note: Some companies have been excluded from this list at their own request and for commercial reasons.