By Carmel Crimmins
DUBLIN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Ireland's literary and musical heritage can be used to open business doors around the world and help seal deals in the face of economic crisis, corporate heavyweights told an international forum on Saturday.
'The fact that we have such a strong culture as a country really gives us one of the big advantages of any nation in the world,' telecoms billionaire Denis O'Brien told the final session of a two-day economic conference in Dublin.
'We are famous for our writers, our artists, our poets and we are not famous for much else,' said the chairman of Digicel, adding that his cell phone group had got a licence to operate in Samoa because the country's prime minister had been educated by an Irish religious order.
The role of culture in generating economic goodwill overseas was a major theme among participants at a Davos-style conference organised by the Irish government to create ideas for pulling the country out of the western world's worst recession.
Dublin wants to use its influential diaspora to promote economic growth and the delegates comprised around 180 movers and shakers of Irish descent from the worlds of business, academia and the arts.
'Your work this week will be taken forward and action will be taken,' Foreign Minister Micheal Martin told participants, who included Craig Barrett, the former chairman of Intel , and anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof.
But Dublin is under pressure to squeeze spending to tackle a ballooning budget deficit and Martin admitted that Dublin was constrained in its ability to increase expenditure on education and research and development, as recommended by participants.
'We are going through a crisis at the moment which does require ... a very significant (cut to) budget,' Martin said. 'They are the over-arching priorities that government has at the moment and we have to try and work within that.'
CULTURAL SUCCESSES REMAIN
About 70 million people worldwide claim Irish descent and the Irish diaspora in the United States played an influential role in helping to end a decades-long sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland in 1998.
Now the government wants to harness this community, much as Israel and India have done with their diasporas, to its economic advantage.
Martin said the government would look at creating an online portal for a virtual community of people of Irish descent to stay in touch, as well as more educational exchanges and diaspora-linked tourism.
In the plush surroundings of Farmleigh, a Georgian estate in Dublin once owned by the Guinness brewing clan, participants brainstormed on Ireland's image, brand and business potential.
The country has been transformed from the 'Celtic Tiger' economy to the euro zone's weakest link via a local property crash and global financial crisis. A slew of scandals surrounding its banks has also hammered its reputation as a venue for international finance.
'So many institutions have failed the Irish people. It seems that the church has failed them, the banks have failed them, the construction industry has failed the Irish people,' said film-maker Neil Jordan, whose screen work includes 'The Crying Game' and 'Interview with the vampire'.
'The culture industry, they have not failed, they are perhaps the only success story that remains after the last 20 years.'
(Additional reporting by Andras Gergely and Daryl Foo; Editing by Matthew Jones) Keywords: IRELAND FORUM/ (carmel.crimmins@reuters.com; +353 1 500 1529; Reuters Messaging: carmel.crimmins.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
DUBLIN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Ireland's literary and musical heritage can be used to open business doors around the world and help seal deals in the face of economic crisis, corporate heavyweights told an international forum on Saturday.
'The fact that we have such a strong culture as a country really gives us one of the big advantages of any nation in the world,' telecoms billionaire Denis O'Brien told the final session of a two-day economic conference in Dublin.
'We are famous for our writers, our artists, our poets and we are not famous for much else,' said the chairman of Digicel, adding that his cell phone group had got a licence to operate in Samoa because the country's prime minister had been educated by an Irish religious order.
The role of culture in generating economic goodwill overseas was a major theme among participants at a Davos-style conference organised by the Irish government to create ideas for pulling the country out of the western world's worst recession.
Dublin wants to use its influential diaspora to promote economic growth and the delegates comprised around 180 movers and shakers of Irish descent from the worlds of business, academia and the arts.
'Your work this week will be taken forward and action will be taken,' Foreign Minister Micheal Martin told participants, who included Craig Barrett, the former chairman of Intel , and anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof.
But Dublin is under pressure to squeeze spending to tackle a ballooning budget deficit and Martin admitted that Dublin was constrained in its ability to increase expenditure on education and research and development, as recommended by participants.
'We are going through a crisis at the moment which does require ... a very significant (cut to) budget,' Martin said. 'They are the over-arching priorities that government has at the moment and we have to try and work within that.'
CULTURAL SUCCESSES REMAIN
About 70 million people worldwide claim Irish descent and the Irish diaspora in the United States played an influential role in helping to end a decades-long sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland in 1998.
Now the government wants to harness this community, much as Israel and India have done with their diasporas, to its economic advantage.
Martin said the government would look at creating an online portal for a virtual community of people of Irish descent to stay in touch, as well as more educational exchanges and diaspora-linked tourism.
In the plush surroundings of Farmleigh, a Georgian estate in Dublin once owned by the Guinness brewing clan, participants brainstormed on Ireland's image, brand and business potential.
The country has been transformed from the 'Celtic Tiger' economy to the euro zone's weakest link via a local property crash and global financial crisis. A slew of scandals surrounding its banks has also hammered its reputation as a venue for international finance.
'So many institutions have failed the Irish people. It seems that the church has failed them, the banks have failed them, the construction industry has failed the Irish people,' said film-maker Neil Jordan, whose screen work includes 'The Crying Game' and 'Interview with the vampire'.
'The culture industry, they have not failed, they are perhaps the only success story that remains after the last 20 years.'
(Additional reporting by Andras Gergely and Daryl Foo; Editing by Matthew Jones) Keywords: IRELAND FORUM/ (carmel.crimmins@reuters.com; +353 1 500 1529; Reuters Messaging: carmel.crimmins.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.