With quite a few nations mulling stronger immigration laws, Ireland, the island in North Atlantic, wants to play a different tune. The Investment and Development Agency (IDA) wants to triple the number of start-ups, IT services organisations, entrepreneurs from various sectors in India in the next three years to set up base in various parts of Ireland.
IDA along with sister firms like Enterprise Ireland is looking forward to helping Indian start-ups and enterprise companies focusing on the European market.
“We are willing to give Indian companies competitive tax rates, access to funding, 48-hour registration period, easy regulatory surroundings so that we become the go-to destination for companies from India,” says Martin D Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland.
IDA Ireland is engaged with organisations in IT services, fintech, pharmaceuticals and medical devices among others. Currently, six out of the top 10 Indian IT services companies in Ireland include TCS, HCL, Wipro, Mindtree, and Tech Mahindra who had started with a BPO operation and have also set up a Centre of Excellence in the telecom space.
Even Infosys has a fintech R&D centre. Other organisations include BrowserStack, Wockardt, SMT, Crompton & Greeves, and Deepak Fasteners.
“Indian originations’ should also establish research and development centre which will help propel growth in future technological areas so that job market is always ahead of the curve,” says Shanahan.
Moreover, he points out that the talent pool in Ireland offers an added advantage for foreign organisations.
“We rank in top five for population growth, overall workforce productivity, university education, and secondary school enrolment. The government wants to meet 74 per cent of ICT skills set from domestic institutions by 2018.”
But according to the IDA, whereas Indian organisations are allowed to bring in experts from other countries including theirs, 50 per cent of their workforce within two years needs to be from native Ireland or Europe.
According to Shanahan, events like Brexit and recession in various parts of Europe have had a positive impact so far for Ireland.
“Due to recession in Europe, a lot of skilled workers have come to Ireland in the last 5 years and Brexit has made many organisations look at Ireland because of their customer footprint in Europe.” He explains that Ireland’s proximity to England makes them favorable. “We are majorly English speaking but we have a cost advantage against London.”
Even Nasscom Product Council’s Co-chair Somdutta Singh says Ireland just like Israel has a great business environment coupled with their relaxed immigration policies, transparent tax regime, and availability of local talent which is a mix of students from across the world. “Positive steps from the IDA are really welcoming for countries like India as the collaboration of talent from the cross border is very important for the growth of a nation.”
Source: Economic Times
