Irish exports to India should be able to grow tenfold to $1 billion a year within five years and the Republic should become India's hub for the European Union, multibillionaire Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said last night.
Said to be India's richest woman, she described the Republic as "a fountain of innovation", and said it should become the launching pad for Indian multinationals trying to break into the EU market.
The founder of India's largest biotechnology company, Biocon, the businesswoman also serves as a member of the board of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and as Irish consul in Bangalore.
The Republic's existing €109 million worth of exports to India is tiny, she told The Irish Times last night: "I think we should be aiming for, at least, a $1 billion dollar trade within five years.
"There are tremendous opportunities. I think Irish companies need to start looking at India as a marketplace. India has never been a marketplace on anyone's radar because they always feel that it is a poor country. Slowly, the middle-classes are becoming a little more affluent. They can pay for more expensive products.
"There is a huge opportunity. India is ready for business, Ireland is ready for business," she declared.
Ireland should not focus on the loss of lower-quality jobs to India, she warned. "I think you have to look at global opportunities in a very different way. Cost effectiveness and capital efficiency is what is going to drive business to different geographic regions.
"What you have to look at is how to use these various opportunities in a way that makes the best sense for those companies. If innovation is the strength for Ireland, you need to focus on jobs based on innovation. You can't get into a debate about jobs going to different regions. Jobs are going to go from India, too, to other parts of the world. If you continuously look at the threats, and not look at the opportunities, then I think you are missing out," Dr Mazumdar-Shaw said.
Irish businesspeople should visit the country, she urged: "Seeing is believing. They need to see what is happening.
"There is a lot of scepticism and perception hurdles. They need to come. There has to be respect, so they do need to come and look. I think India today is looking for innovation in a big way. Ireland is a good launching pad for Europe, the language, the cost base, the people."
India: factfile
• India has a population of 1.1 billion, or one sixth of the world's people.
• 70 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, with 80 per cent of the economy relying on agriculture.
• India is the world's largest democracy and the seventh largest economy.
• More than 200 million people are in the middle- or upper-income brackets.
• India has the third largest economic output in Asia, after Japan and China.
• The economy began to open up to the world in 1991 and has become a world-leader in IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing.
• Economic growth has averaged at roughly 7 per cent for the past two years
• Its government is led by Sonia Gandhi's Congress Party in coalition with communist and socialist parties.
• One third of the population speaks English.
• About 4,000 Indians lived in the Irish Republic in 2002
