The Irish Stock Exchange must accelerate its restructuring and build international linkages to survive, the chief executive of the Irish Management Institute told delegates yesterday.

In his opening address to the National Conference 2000 in Killarney, Mr Barry Kenny said it was a matter of great urgency that the Government acted to remove the 1 per cent stamp duty on transactions.

"To survive, and provide our emerging businesses with access to equity capital, the Irish Stock Exchange must accelerate its restructuring," he said.

Mr Kenny said institutional investors needed low-cost access to highly liquid markets, which was already available through global Internet trading companies such as E-trade or Schwab.

He said failure to act quickly in these areas would leave a new breed of entrepreneur without efficient local access to risk capital.

"The rapidly growing population of private investors needs access to real-time, online dealing in equities," he said.

Mr Kenny said there was no room for complacency in the economy. "We seem keen to test the inflation side of the new economy model to its limits, with the highest inflation rate in Europe at 4.6 per cent," he said.

He said the Republic should be careful to engineer a longer period of less frenetic growth rather than allow a party to end suddenly, with the inevitable hangover to follow.

"We must plan wisely, and balance the needs to build a flexible and competitive new economy with the European and particularly Irish traditions of social inclusion," he said.