Living standards will drop in the Republic over the next decade unless Irish companies learn to compete in the global economy, the head of Enterprise Ireland has warned.
Speaking in Hong Kong at the end of a successful week-long trade mission, chief executive Mr Frank Ryan, said the country had become comfortable following the successes of recent years. "We may have lost touch. We did innovative things in the past, like corporation tax, but it is time to do innovative things again."
Irish-owned companies are going to have to hunt daily for international business. "We need to be out there, every day. Lots of Irish business people are going to have to live abroad for periods to drum up that business."
Every Irish company, regardless of size and type will have to have a research and development laboratory designing new products.
"The next 10 years will not be a re-run of the last 10 years. Those who think it will be have under-estimated what has happened in the world, particularly in China."
The Republic joined "the premier league" of developed countries in the last decade, he said.
"But most teams who get promoted to the premier league either struggle, or get demoted. Getting there is but one part of the battle.
"The great danger at the moment is that Ireland will become complacent and feel that we have graduated to become a developed country and that we can stop there.
"But we have to keep earning our living every day. We have to be more creative and competitive and we have got to develop many of the products that we have traditionally been excellent at manufacturing for other people. Manufacturing will not go away, but it will not be enough to sustain us on its own," he said.
He agreed with the concern's of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, about planning delays. Companies needed to have certainty about their plans.
"Entrepreneurs need to know how long it will take to get a Yes or a No. I am not saying that we should give everybody a Yes, but we should give the decision, whatever it is, earlier."
Supporting last year's Enterprise Strategy Group, which recommended more research and development and more international sales and marketing, Mr Ryan said: "Our future employment will be guaranteed by what we know."
He pointed to information technology and bio-technology as the future for Irish industry, saying these businesses are "absolutely driven by knowledge".
"The question now is how many MScs graduates we are going to have, how many PhDs. Without enough of those, our model will not be able to sustain itself."
Successful Irish companies operating in Asia, such as Iona Technologies, Skillsoft, Valista, Orbiscom, are driven by research and development.
"By 2015, Ireland's performance will be driven by indigenous Irish companies. If not, we will suffer a reduction in living standards.
"We are now in the league of developed countries. You look to developed countries as the source of sophisticated products. You don't look to developed countries as the source of low-cost components. If you want that, you will look to China and after China to Cambodia, or Vietnam. There is always a country playing the low-cost model and it isn't countries associated with high standards of living," he said.
