India natural ally in economic ties: Ireland

Relations between India and Ireland are expected to take a quantum jump forward when Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern makes a six-day visit to India in January with new frontiers being attempted to be opened in areas like information technology, pharmaceuticals, bio-tech and healthcare.

One of the most-globalised economies of the developed world, Ireland with its small and trade-dependent economy has put in place an 'Asia Strategy,' something akin to India's 'Look East' policy of the early nineties, and is keen on wooing the Indian market.

It has already initiated relations on a strong footing with China giving priority to other Asian countries like Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Ahern visited China early this year and since then there have been strong ties established between them.

Now in his second term as Prime Minister, Ahern, who had put in place the Asia Strategy, is leading a high-level delegation of ministers, including the deputy prime minister, and over 120 captains of business and industry, to India from January 16 to 22. Apart from New Delhi, the prime minister and his delegation plan to visit Mumbai and Bangalore, the capital of IT and bio-technology sectors.

"It is in many ways an exploratory visit. The objective of the high-level visit is to trade-focussed and to promote trade between the two countries. It is also to deepen and strengthen the cordial relations between the two countries," say senior officials of the department of foreign affairs, who briefed visiting senior Indian journalists in Dublin.

A number of company-to-company agreements are expected to be signed in these sectors including those for proposed joint ventures in third countries, the officials said. Anything that is viable including joint ventures, manufacturing and services sector they are interested in looking at, Pat Scullion, director for Asia in the economic department of foreign affairs, said.

Tourism, civil aviation, bloodstock industry and education are the other areas Ireland is interested in cooperating with India, said Scullion, an old India hand who has served as Ireland's Ambassador to New Delhi till recently.

Some of the big names in information technology -- Microsoft, Dell, IBM and HP -- are in Ireland along with leaders in the pharmaceutical and medical technology like Guidant, Innocoll and Pfizer. Biocon, which was originally started in Ireland, is now fully Indian. Biocon czarina Bangalore-based Kiran Shah Mazumdar is also the Honorary Consul for Ireland there.

Ireland sees India, where English is widely spoken, as a natural ally in its quest for expanding economic cooperation. Politically there are no problems between the two whereas there had been longstanding ties cemented by their common fight against the colonial British regime.

While from the Indian there had been no no high-level visit after the one by the late President N Sanjiva Reddy in 1982, there have been occasional high-level visits by Irish leaders including the state visit by the then President Mary Robinson in 1993, Ahern himself as Leader of the Opposition in 1997, Defence Minister David Andrews in 1998 and by the Deputy Prime Minister Mary Hrney. Foreign Minister Brian Cowen visited India last year to attend the EU-India troika meeting.

Trade between the two countries stood at Euro 262 million last year with the advantage slightly tilted in India's favour. While Ireland exported goods and services worth Euro 109 million it imported goods worth Euro 153 million. (A Euro equals Rs 53).

Garments, pharmaceuticals and medicare products constituted Irish imports from India.

Irish officials said education was one sector they were clearly interested in cooperating with India. Availability of quality education in Ireland was one area which Indian students could exploit, they said.

Asked about green cards for Indian IT professionals, a senior secretary in the department of foreign affairs said a legislation was still in the process of being debated in Parliament but admitted there were plans for giving such cards to professionals.

The number of cards and their duration were matters under discussion, he said adding it could be between three and five years.

A booming economy with full employment, Ireland is in short supply of unskilled labour of which there has been adequate supply from Poland under the European Union regulations.

In the information technology industry, though there was a perceived huge complementarity still there was enough scope for cooperation and tie ups between the companies in the two countires, feel officials of Industrial Development Agency. Outsourcing was still profitable in India due to cheaper costs.

Ireland is one of the three EU countries which have granted full access to their market. Officials say 10 per cent of the 4.4 million population were "non-nationals", meaning immigrants predominantly from Eastern Europe -- Poland and Romania -- and Nigeria.

As part of their bid to woo students to their Universities and educational institutions, Ireland is liberalising the student visas. But educational tie-ups between India and Ireland could also mean exchange of scholars and visits, the officials said.

As part of tourism, Ireland also proposes to woo the Bollywood for making pictures in some of the exquisite locales untouched by symbols of modernism. Already a couple of Tamil films, including one by leading hero Vijay, have been shot in Ireland recently.

IDA official Brendan J Halpin told reporters that transparency in its economic policies, including the fact that Corporation Tax was pegged at 12.5 per cent, attracted global giants to Ireland, which was till over three decades was referred to as a "third world" European country.

But the reasons for Ireland's growth are traced to the US boom in the 1980s, EU emerging as the single market and Ireland joining it and IT and communications technology giving a big push to the economy.

Its per capita income has gone up from Euro 10,357 to Euro 35,197 in 2004, which is attributed to the tremendous growth in the export-led economy. 80 per cent of the manufactured exports are by foreign multinationals, which account for 25 per cent of the country's GDP.

The IDA, whose job is to attract FDI to Ireland, is involved in wooing FDI in pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, international and financial services. In international services it is involved in strong clusters built in software development, shared services, financial services and customer support agency.

During Prime Minister Ahern's visit, there will also be an agreement signed between the Science Foundation of Ireland and the Indian Science Academy, Bangalore, for encouraging scientific research between the two countries.

Cooperation in research between institutions of excellence like the Indian Institutes of Technology will be reached, Mattie McCabe, director, corporate affairs of the Science Foundation, said.

Ireland, a nation where horse racing is a great sport, is also looking to market its thoroughbreds in the Indian market.

Already there have been negotiations by leading race horse owners like Punewalas, Viijay Mallya and M A M Ramaswami with the Irish Thoroughbreak Marketing, which is also going to be part of the Prime Minister's delegation in January for further deals.