IDA Ireland says it has achieved a “very strong” first half for this year, with 139 projects won during the period, compared with 114 for the same period in 2017. The 139 projects included 51 regional investments, with technology, financial services and pharmaceuticals performing strongly.
Chief executive Martin Shanahan (pictured) said: “This has been another strong half for investment growth in Ireland. We are now well past the half-way point of our current ‘Winning’ strategy, and I am encouraged by today’s figures.
“IDA Ireland operates in an extraordinarily competitive environment with all countries fighting for the same investment. I am particularly encouraged by our progress in China, South Korea and India in recent months,. with investments from companies like Wuxi (China), SK biotek (South Korea) and Leetha (India). IDA Ireland has invested in Asia over several years now, and I’m glad see that investment paying dividends.”
He added that the IDA has been expanding its Brexit-focused conversations with investors in sectors including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, legal and broadcasters.
“Brexit forms part of the backdrop to all investment engagements we have with clients these days – we estimate that in excess of 40 companies have chosen Ireland as a result of the planned exit by the UK from the European Union, with Brexit being a factor in other decisions.”
In Association with
The IDA’s current strategy has focused on winning investments for the regions, with good results, he said. He pointed to the 600 jobs in the Mid-West at Edwards Life Sciences, and 400 new jobs promised for Dundalk by Chinese life sciences company Wuxi Biologics. There were also two announcements in Longford by Avery Dennison and Red Seal Sups, bringing 300 jobs to the Midlands region.
IDA will finish its current programme of regional property investment with new advanced buildings in Limerick, Dundalk and Waterford. The IDA boss went on to warn that unless Ireland stays competitive, we would not continue to see such investment numbers.
“The last three years have seen record job creation numbers within the IDA Ireland client portfolio – there are over 210,000 directly employed in FDI companies in 2018. We cannot take this investment for granted and companies will go elsewhere unless we maintain an environment that is conducive to doing business.”
As if to underline the IDA announcement, US photography and tech company Shutterstock said it is to open a Dublin office where it will require 40 staff, including engineering roles, and hopes to expand the team further over the coming years.
The Shutterstock Dublin team will initially focus on certain products including the company’s Bigstock business and continued development of its editorial platform, Shutterstock Editorial. The team will use advanced techniques from machine learning, computer vision, cloud computing and analytics to develop capabilities including advanced search, personalisation, recommendation, and intelligent digital rights management.
Headquartered in New York City, Shutterstock has offices around the world and customers in more than 150 countries. The company also owns Bigstock, a value-oriented stock media agency; Shutterstock Custom, a custom content creation platform, Offset, a high-end image collection; PremiumBeat, a royalty-free music library; and Rex Features, a source of editorial images for the world's media.
