Analysis: IDA's "better than expected"
IDA Ireland's end-year figures for 2002 revealed few surprises yesterday, with all the positive statements in the world unable to mask a picture of general sluggishness.The highlights were easy to identify, with pharmaceuticals - the economy's great white hope - once again providing most reason for excitement.
Slightly more than 1,500 new jobs were created in the sector last year, three times more than international and financial services, the next most successful source of new employment. It was a similar picture when existing job levels were added in, with pharmaceuticals and healthcare one of only two industry sectors which managed to record overall growth last year.
Even international and financial services failed to make it to zero when new and existing jobs were combined, with overall employment in the sector falling by 0.3 per cent.
Retaining its position at the bottom of the class were the textile and clothing companies, which filled just 56 new jobs last year.
Presenting the numbers, IDA chief executive, Mr Sean Dorgan said it was "better than expected" and he was probably right. Happily, he sees the indications for 2003 as "brighter".
He singled out a number of 2002's projects as particularly heartening, citing expansion in financial services by MBNA in Carrick-on-Shannon and AOL in Waterford and "quality projects" involving healthcare companies such as Bausch and Lomb and Dow Corning as the kind of new investment worth pursuing for this year.
Despite last year's continued slide in employment numbers in the IT and communications sectors - a 5 per cent reduction compared to an average decline of 2.2 per cent - IDA sees some space for optimism.
The computer and semiconductor sides of the sector are showing some signs of growth, according to the authority's analysis. Specialist areas such as e-learning, games and content management are also under consideration, while "the convergence of the biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and healthcare" sectors is considered to be particularly promising.
Financial jobs among multinationals seeking to take full advantage of the Republic's general 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate are also set to grow in 2003, according to IDA.
Central to all of this activity, however, must be the recently-unveiled National Spatial Strategy, which is designed to build "magnets of attraction" in the regions.
When last year's IDA-backed employment levels are broken down on a regional basis, growth is shown to be patchy, with some parts of the west losing more than 10 per cent of their international jobs in 2002.
Even with this net reduction, the authority succeeded in fulfilling its goal of directing more than 50 per cent of all greenfield jobs last year to so-called "Objective One" regions.
As the IDA's statement implicitly pointed out, this kept the authority's side of the regional bargain; the remainder is for the regions themselves, which IDA says must "develop clear competitive reasons" for companies to locate there.
