Ms Eileen Sharpe:

I thank the committee members for inviting us to provide a briefing on IDA activities in growth markets. We have had an office in the growth markets, specifically in Tokyo, since the mid-1980s, and have had a part-time presence in Sydney since the mid-1990s. However, it was not until 2006 that we began our growth markets journey in earnest by establishing our first office in Shanghai. Until the late 1990s, our efforts were almost exclusively concentrated on the US and the EU. The US was and continues to be Ireland's main source of foreign direct investment, FDI. In the late 1990s, though, matters changed. There was a shift eastwards and the emerging markets began generating significant levels of FDI. IDA Ireland needed to adapt and change to reflect the change in the investment environment.

With this in mind, we began our growth markets journey by setting up our first office in Shanghai. In the following years, we built up a portfolio of offices in the growth markets region. We followed Shanghai with an office in Mumbai, India, and a second China office in Shenzhen. We went on to Moscow and opened a second Indian office in Bangalore. We went to São Paulo in Brazil, Seoul in South Korea and Singapore. Most recently, we opened a new office in the Irish Embassy in Beijing. We also established a growth markets division in Dublin to support and work through the consequences of all of the activity in the marketplace.

In terms of measuring our performance, we set targets in 2010 of achieving 4% of all new name investments for IDA Ireland from growth markets regions. From 2010 to 2014, we increased that significantly. Last year, 20% of all new name investments for IDA Ireland came from growth markets regions. Today, we have more than 100 growth markets clients who employ more than 9,500 people throughout the country.

We see growth markets as an excellent opportunity for the future of the country while recognising the challenges of operating in these environments, which are very different from the USA and Europe. The primary difference is by way of business culture. The business culture within each country is different. There is a complexity of language across many of these economies and the reality is that Ireland is relatively unknown in many of them. The geographies are absolutely vast and populations are measured in billions, not millions. At the same time, there are millions of trading companies through which we have to navigate. It is a complex market. The other significant challenge is that there are no direct air links with some of our major markets. Despite these challenges, there is a compelling investment case for IDA Ireland for the future from these markets and we need to box clever in terms of how we work out there to maximise our impact. In the growth markets arena, we work very much as part of a team Ireland effort. There are not that many people representing Ireland in these regions so we work as a team. We get very valuable support from our own Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and work closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Finance, the NTMA and Enterprise Ireland. It is very much a team effort in these regions. In some of the countries and in China in particular, government-to-government relations are a very important element of the business development case. In that context, ministerial visits to these countries play a critical part in business development activity.

In approaching these vast markets, we aim to attract major brands and household names. That way, we get Ireland and IDA Ireland associated with household names, which has an impact in terms of our further development. It leads to more sustainable investment projects here. We also develop special marketing programmes and marketing materials which are specific to each territory. They are geared to the particular culture of a particular country. In the presentation packs circulated to members, we have included some examples of different presentation materials in different languages.

In summary, increasing the share of investment from growth markets is an integral and critical part of the IDA's new strategy. For 2015 and beyond, our aim is to increase significantly the level of investment we get from these regions. That is a reflection of the importance we place on our activities in these markets. I thank the committee.