Ireland Ranked Sixth In Entrepreneurship Survey

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

08 August 2002

The news that Ireland was ranked sixth in a survey assessing levels of entrepreneurship in 28 countries has been welcomed by the nation's media.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for 2001, placed the RoI highest in Europe, with an estimated 160,000 people in the process of setting up a new businesses, 110,000 residents already part or full owners of a business, and some 5,000 still in the planning stages of establishing a venture which they believe will employ 50 people after 5 years.

On the global stage, Ireland was pipped to the post by Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, and Brazil.

The Irish Independent reported on Wednesday that the discrepancy between the 2001 result and that of the previous year (when Ireland was ranked bottom of the league) was due to an 'anomaly' in the questionnaire-based research, and that several of the surveys had been re-run in 2001 in order to give a more accurate picture of levels of entrepreneurial activity in Ireland.

However, the GEM Consortium, which conducted the survey revealed that several areas of concern had been raised by interviewees. The report's authors suggested that shortcomings in the Irish telecommunications and physical infrastructures should be addressed, and that gaps in the availability of seed capital should be dealt with urgently.

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