A importância do investimento direto estrangeiro na economia irlandesa

: o papel da Industrial Developmental Authority

Abstract

The Irish economy has undergone several economic crises in the past 70 years. The most recent began in 2008, and now the results for improvement and growth of the country are visible. The Government of Ireland despite these crises always had a pillar that helped maintain economic stability, during these periods, the Foreign Direct Investment. Since the 50s, the government has been focusing, controlling, adapting to external market and policies of different attractiveness, in FDI, especially for its corporate tax rate – currently 12.5% – the others countries, has Ireland as door to get in the European market, to firms outside Europe, especially the United States. The Industrial Development Authority, IDA, is the main responsible for control and attractiveness of FDI in Ireland. It has the power to create foreign and domestic firms programs, since they fulfil with the requirements, but also through its programs with the objective to achieve such as "Horizon 2020". IDA has shown the ability to adapt to market changes and be able to predict which sectors and companies will revolutionize the market, example of this is the bet since the 50's in TIC companies and sciences – which for most of the other countries were the primary and industrial – are currently the fastest growing sectors. So it’s because of IDA that Foreign Direct Investment has a very important role in the Irish economy - nearly 90 % of all exports are from foreign companies, the ability to constantly create new jobs, boost the country's education and create centres of investment. There are some good examples of foreign companies that achieve the suggested IDA objectives, but also of companies that even without any connection to IDA have been able to appear in the Irish market. A good example is the Portuguese company, Mota-Engil, Lda, even being in the first years at the Irish market, has growth up, and created three Irish companies. More recently won three public projects, which is in line with the directors of the Irish companies’ expectations – if the Irish economy continues to improve, it is expected an increase of the public projects procedure.

Date of Award	27 Apr 2015
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Francisca Guedes de Oliveira (Supervisor)