Irish companies are now investing as much money abroad as foreign firms do in Ireland, it emerged today.
The Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, Michael Ahern, welcomed the Forfas International Trade and Investment Report, which found Ireland's outward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rose to its highest ever level in 2004.
"This report emphasises the changing nature of production in Ireland, particularly how Irish companies are increasingly winning export business in services activities, which is timely in light of the European Parliament's vote on the Services Directive last Thursday," he said.
"It is also interesting to note that for the first time Irish firms are now net outward foreign direct investors.
"In the future, this will be an important way for Irish businesses to access new markets, and to specialise their domestic operations in high value added activities."
The report found:
- Services exports continued to expand rapidly, particularly in computer, finance and insurance services.
- While still extremely large by international standards, the merchandise trade surplus has been declining since 2002, reflecting slow export growth and a surge in imports. The rise in imports was driven by buoyant consumer demand and the reliance of Ireland on increasingly expensive imported fuels.
- The continuing evolution of the Irish economy is reflected in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. For the first time Ireland became a net investor overseas, as outward FDI rose to its highest ever level in 2004.
- Ireland is following the path of other high-income developed economies by increasing its direct investments abroad, suggesting that Ireland is set to remain a net investor overseas in the coming years.
- Ireland still attracts a large share of global FDI inflows for its size. Although the country's share fell significantly in 2004, this largely reflected changes in the financial operations of multinationals based here, rather than a reduction in new production facilities.
The number of new IDA-supported jobs has been increasing steadily since 2003.