Speech by Mr Michael Ahern, T.D., Minister for Trade and Commerce at the “Doing Business in Cork” MicroTrade Business Networking Event

Tuesday, 24^th January 2006.

First of all, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of the business representatives from both the Cork area and particularly from Northern Ireland present here this evening for this MicroTrade Networking Event. I would especially like to welcome Jim Eastwood, Chairman of Enterprise Northern Ireland and his colleagues here today. I would like to thank Dominic Mullan of MicroTrade for his kind invitation to address this event. I have been advised that today has been very successful with a busy series of inter-business meetings and introductions.

As you are probably aware, this networking event and the wider MicroTrade programme has grown out of a partnership between our own 35 City & County Enterprise Boards, their counterparts in Northern Ireland – the 32 Local Enterprise Agencies that make up Enterprise Northern Ireland – and the all-island trade and business development body InterTradeIreland, which grew out of the Belfast Agreement.

The Corporate Plan of InterTradeIreland, which is sponsored both by my own Department and by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland, is centred upon pooling resources across the island in order to create a cooperative advantage, which enhances the competitiveness of businesses both in Northern Ireland and Ireland.

InterTradeIreland strives to achieve that goal by supporting a wide range of actions that offer businesses opportunities to address a larger all-island market and to expose their products and services to a wider range of customers and explore and engage in inter-firm co-operation.

Reflecting the spirit of increased all-island co-operation, InterTradeIreland believes that working with key business bodies, North and South, is the most effective means of delivering suitable supports efficiently to companies, large and small. When the 35 City and County Enterprise Boards of Ireland, along with Enterprise Northern Ireland – the primary support providers to micro-enterprises on the island of Ireland - made an initial approach to InterTradeIreland regarding the development of a specific support programme for small businesses, the foundations of the MicroTrade Programme were soon in place.

It is worth emphasising the role and importance of small businesses throughout the island of Ireland in driving local economic prosperity. Entrepreneurship is one of the cornerstones of a modern, fully developed economy and the lifeblood of thriving local communities.

As a result, creating an environment in which entrepreneurship flourishes and entrepreneurs abound is a common goal of policy makers, North and South.

The City and County Enterprise Boards are my Department’s primary channel for the promotion of entrepreneurship and the delivery of supports to micro-enterprises, and they have been extraordinarily effective in that role.

The Cork Enterprise Boards awarded a total of € 900,000 to micro-enterprises in 2005 with a job creation potential of over 120. The Cork Enterprise Boards have helped with the creation of almost 3,000 new jobs in this sector since they were established. The Boards are also an important provider of training and mentoring to the sector in Cork where 860 people availed of these services in 2005.

 

I am also pleased to note several joint initiatives undertaken by some of the Cork Enterprise Boards to specifically encourage international trade by local micro-enterprises. The Boards have been very active in pursuing initiatives such as trading links with partners in the UK, Sweden and Denmark and through Futurallia, the international business contact forum for micro-enterprises.

I understand in Northern Ireland, Enterprise Northern Ireland leads a network of 32 Local Enterprise Agencies. At local level they are the key drivers of entrepreneurship, delivering training and mentoring through programmes such as the Start a Business Programme, which has been completed by no fewer than 11,465 people since its inception in 2001. Collectively, Enterprise Northern Ireland’s member agencies have assisted in the creation of 10,500 new businesses providing 15,000 jobs.

Enhancing the business birth rate is just the first of a series of common challenges, North and South. We must collectively support businesses in moving up the value chain, improving their offering of products, of services and offering opportunities to expand into new markets and new fields of activity.

Indeed, when one considers that micro-enterprises employing less than 10 people account for approximately 90% of businesses on the island of Ireland, it would be remiss for development agencies, North or South, to omit to deliver support mechanisms to assist micro-enterprises in spreading their wings into all-island markets.

A recent InterTradeIreland survey of business enterprises showed that one third of businesses on the island of Ireland have a North/South trading or business development strategy. Most importantly, companies felt that trading cross-border provided a low-risk learning environment before more challenging international markets were addressed.

MicroTrade is a simple but effective model that provides micro-enterprises with various platforms through which to explore and develop all-island markets. I believe that today’s event is a first venture into the South West for many of the Northern Ireland businesses present, and I hope that the efforts of the various Enterprise Boards in County Cork have proven effective in allowing you to make a number of worthwhile contacts that you will build upon in coming weeks. Similarly, I hope that the Cork businesses here have had the opportunity to ‘pick the brains’ of our visiting businesses and representatives of Enterprise Northern Ireland, and that a return trade mission will be possible within the not too distant future.

I would encourage all of you to consider attending the flagship MicroTrade All-Island Networking Event which will take place at Citywest in County Dublin in April. Last year’s event brought together 318 small businesses and almost 500 business people for a series of ‘pre-matched’ meetings and Speednetworking sessions. This is an extraordinarily practical opportunity to develop sales and explore co-operation with cross-border businesses.

In order to build upon new inter-business relationships made at such events, MicroTrade offers Link-Up Funding to support joint business development projects between North/South pairings of firms. Partnerships funded thus far truly span the island with link-ups between businesses in Tralee and Lurgan (County Armagh), Belfast and Galway, Tallaght and Newtownards, amongst others. With MicroTrade support, these pairings are allowing small businesses to grow their markets on an all-island basis and indeed to promote their products beyond the confines of this island.

To conclude, I would re-iterate my thanks to the Cork City and County Enterprise Boards, Enterprise Northern Ireland and InterTradeIreland for their support of the MicroTrade initiative, and would wish all of the businesses present the best of luck in building upon the relationships you have initiated today.

Thank you and I hope you have enjoyed the day and that your business will benefit from the contacts you have made.

ENDS

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