Post-Brexit, Ireland woos business from Kerala

KOCHI:With Brexit looming, Ireland’s Investment Development Authority (IDA) has been wooing the companies in Kerala to set up shop there to gain advantage from investments in Ireland’s business ecosystem. Tanaz Bhuhariwalla, IDA India director said that over 40 Indian businesses engaged in sectors ranging from Information Technology (IT), engineering, pharma, medical devices and life sciences have chosen Dublin.

“This year Kerala is our focus for encouraging investments in Ireland. Several Kerala-based firms in the food processing, healthcare, IT and life sciences sectors are making huge investments in Ireland and in the coming years, we will definitely see a rise in the number of such companies,” Tanaz said.According to her, during the last census held in 2011, Malayalees make up an eighth of Ireland’s 28,000-strong Indian population.“Due to the low corporate tax rate, Ireland offers a favourable ecosystem for investors and global companies looking for an effective partnership,” she said.

Indian companies, both large and small and across a wide range of sectors, have chosen Ireland for strategic operations like manufacturing, supply chain management, warehousing, assembly, customer delivery and product development. Dublin’s young, productive and multi-lingual workforce draw from across the European Union(EU) has been another major attraction for India Inc.

“There has been heightened interest from Indian companies to use Ireland as their base for Europe. This interest has spiked in the wake of impending Brexit as companies are now concerned about how they will service the European markets from the UK, Tanaz said. This sentiment has been sweeping regulated as well as the unregulated sectors, including financial services, IT and life sciences companies, she added.
Ireland is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe having a distinct advantage as it is now the only English part of the EU offering a favourable business environment coupled with immigration policies which welcome skilled labour and entrepreneurs to be part of the pro-business environment.Presently, six out of the top 10 Indian IT  companies, including TCS, HCL, Wipro, Infosys, and Mindtree, operate out of Ireland. The well-developed sectoral clusters is another of Dublin’s major plus.