Optimistic outlook for Irish exports

EXPORTS are on the up and according to John Carr of the Mid-West branch of the Irish Exporters Association, it’s one of the areas of the economy where it isn’t all doom and gloom.

Mr Carr is based at Flextronics in Shannon and he said there are some grounds for optimism.
“In summary I’d say that companies in the region are doing well from an export perspective and we’ve gathered a lot of data, particularly for companies that are close to Shannon Airport.”
He said that smaller companies are increasingly looking at selling their products abroad.
“We would see a lot of interest from smaller companies in the services that we provide. In the past, the companies that we would have focussed on would have been larger but in the last few years more companies from the SME sector have come to us. We have representatives abroad so we can put them in touch with people on the ground in other countries.”
The Irish Exporters Association found that exports in the fourth quarter of 2010 grew by 18%, bringing total exports of goods and services to €161 billion, the highest figure ever recorded. The association has forecast that the export of goods will grow by around 5% this year.
Mr Carr said that this year services exports could exceed the amount of physical goods.
“Services could exceed merchandise exports this year for the first time, things like financial services and software development, and we are trying to give support to people in this area. There is very strong momentum in services.”
In its outlook for 2011, the Irish Exporters Association expects growth but warns that what it expects “is still well below the rate of growth in exports required to enable the targets in the IMF four-year plan to be achieved”.
For those targets to be met even higher growth is need. “The underlining growth rates would have to be 10.8% increase in export sales per annum for the next four years made up of indigenous export growth of 8% per annum and foreign multinational growth of 11% per annum.
“This would lead to the 300,000 new jobs created in the private sector required to support the achievement of the GDP and tax targets.”
The association claims that the creation of special export zones in Ireland and the creation of global distribution centres to support major manufacturing operations are steps that could be taken to promote growth and make the targets achievable.