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PwC In Brussels Says Dublin The Worst European City To Do E-Business

Jeremy Hetherington-Gore, Tax-News.com, London

05 February 2001

The PwC report seems to fly in the face of some fairly evident facts about development of the e-economy in Ireland:
Which European country is installing 23 Internet data centres costing £800m and is spending £300m on a broadband network to link regional cities to its capital? (Answer, Ireland)

Which European country has been chosen as a European base by more than thirty US high-tech companies, creating more than 6,000 jobs? (Answer, Ireland)

Which European country has the lowest rates of corporate taxation? (Answer, Ireland)

Which European country has the highest number of fluent English speakers after the UK? (Answer, Ireland)

Which European country had the highest growth rate in 2000 at 9.5%? (Answer, Ireland)

Indeed, PricewaterhouseCoopers in the UK recently released the findings of a new study which looked at the extent to which a 'New Economy' may be emerging in Europe. The report concluded that Ireland is ahead of its European counterparts in terms of its overall potential to make gains from advances in information and communications technology over the next 5-10 years, stating: 'In Ireland, more than in any other economy in Europe, there is hard evidence that a new economy has arrived, boosting growth considerably in the second half of the1990s.'

It's interesting that PwC's Brussels office should issue its report which put Ireland at the bottom of a list of seven European countries in which to do e-business just a few days after the Commission contentiously recommended Ireland to tighten its budgetary stance, and one day after the European Central Bank also took a pot-shot at the EU's most successful economy. It seems to be open season on Ireland in Brussels.

Surely it's not possible that there could be any connection between the PwC report and the Commission's anti-Irish stance (said by Irish leaders to be due to jealousy)? Oh, never mind, at least with PwC you get what you pay for: also last week, PwC was appointed to investigate the links between Gazprom and its 'associate' Itera, which received a few billion dollars from Gazprom but wasn't mentioned in Gazprom's accounts. Just don't ask who audits those accounts.

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