IDA figures point to strong flow of foreign direct investment in first half of 2012
IDA Ireland released its 2011 annual report in July, revealing that that its client companies announced in excess of 5,000 jobs in the first six months of 2012 to continue the strong flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) which occurred in Ireland in 2011.
According to IDA Ireland, improvements in competitiveness in areas such as office rents, construction costs, unit labour costs and business services in recent years have helped boost Ireland’s FDI performance.
As well as this, Ireland continues to rank strongly in the availability of skilled staff, with the 2012 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook positioning Ireland No 1 in the world for skilled labour.
The 2011 annual report indicated that there are now almost 146,000 people working directly in over 1,000 IDA client companies. In addition, 2011 saw the creation of over 13,000 new jobs with the best net jobs increase since 2002 of over 6,000.
Ireland’s inward investment agency said these results position IDA to achieve its 2010-2014 targets as outlined in IDA’s Horizon 2020 strategy.
Sectors where jobs were created
The 5,000 jobs announced are in a range of sectors including IT, life sciences, digital media and international financial services.
The IDA said these investments have been won despite a notable increase in competition from other jurisdictions and the challenging global economic environment. Among the companies announcing the largest projects were PayPal, Apple and Mylan.
According to the report there has been a notable increase in capital intensive projects in recent times, particularly in the pharmaceutical and ICT areas.
Boost for the construction industry
IDA Ireland said that a number of recent investments have commenced or will shortly commence, leading to the construction of over 1,500,000 sq ft of new buildings. It said this would give a “much-needed” boost to the construction industry.
Despite the global challenge of patent expiry in the pharmaceutical sector, the report also pointed to how Ireland continues to perform strongly in the sector, targeting both the pharmaceutical and the bio-pharmaceutical segments in particular. Recent announcements have included Eli Lilly, Amgen, Allergan, Mylan and Abbott.
Office space
IDA Ireland said it was confident of securing, in the medium-term, significant investments that will require large-scale office space.
While the agency said there is currently an adequate supply of office space in the Dublin area, it said that the property sector needs to start planning for future demand.
The IDA said that the availability of suitable modern office space, of scale, is “strategically important” for winning substantial projects. IDA has already held discussions with NAMA on providing solutions to meet this future demand.
In terms of multinationals, the IDA said they are continuing to recruit in a range of areas, including IT, technology, languages and sales and marketing.
Strong FDI flow
Commenting on the results, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton, TD, spoke about how Ireland has seen a strong flow of investment and jobs from multinational companies in 2011 and in the first half of 2012.
“We must do everything possible to ensure that this strong flow of jobs and investments continues. We must also strengthen links between multinational companies and the rest of the economy so that the full benefit of these major investments can feed through to the domestic economy, for example through supply chain opportunities and mentoring for SMEs,” said Bruton.
Challenges and achieving goals
Also commenting on the results of the report, IDA CEO Barry O’Leary spoke of the challenges ahead and how the agency will be working to continue achieving its targets.
“There are challenging headwinds facing IDA and Ireland with little growth in European demand, moderate growth in the US and a slowdown in the economies of China and India. Due to a lack of domestic demand and budget deficits many countries are ramping up their attempts to attract inward investment. ''
''However IDA remains optimistic that Ireland can continue to win significant FDI, building on our strong track record. IDA targets a number of sectors that will continue to grow even in a globally challenging environment. These include IT/technology, digital media and life sciences.
"Even in areas of low or no growth, opportunities will arise in sectors such as the consolidation of technology and operations hubs in global financial institutions and consolidation of operations in a number of other sectors,” said O’Leary.
He added by saying that IDA is in its third consecutive year of employment growth in its portfolio.
“IDA is energised, committed and focused on continuing to grow employment in coming years,” said O’Leary.
The IDA's annual report for 2011 is now available online.
