Ireland is located on the island of Ireland in Western Europe. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) to the northeast, and separated from the United Kingdom by the Irish Sea to the east. The total area of the country is 70,282 square kilometers. The population is primarily Irish, accounting for approximately 98.7% of the total. The country is divided into 27 counties and 4 county-level cities. The capital is Dublin. The currency is the "Irish Pound." The official languages are Irish and English. The name of the country is derived from its main ethnic group, the Irish. In the Celtic language, "Eire" means "behind" or "west." It was named this because the island is located on the western edge of Europe. After the Norse Vikings arrived, they called this place "Ireland," meaning "Western Country" or "Green Country." On April 18, 1937, Ireland officially declared independence and named the country "Ireland." Are you ready to immigrate to Ireland? Please follow WorldWay as we enter the nation of Ireland, where WorldWay immigration experts will provide you with a comprehensive introduction to Irish business customs.
The general characteristics of Irish social customs can be summarized as follows:
The Irish live in Western Europe, but they are not overly formal; they have an open and casual personality, yet they never lose their civility and politeness; the "harp" is the most revered symbol, a national emblem for ages; green is considered auspicious and is widely loved; "13" and "Friday" are taboo, and these should be kept in mind.
There are the following characteristics in the details of daily life:
Although the Irish are heavily influenced by the British, they are not as concerned with pomp, status, or demeanor in their daily lives as the British. Generally, they are more open, casual, and practical. In their dealings with others, they place great emphasis on etiquette and manners. They pay special attention to politeness in their speech. In social situations, they use many polite expressions; "please," "thank you," and "excuse me" are their habitual phrases. They also highly respect women, and "ladies first" has become a tradition in their lives. In whatever they do, men are expected to look after women, and in all things, women come before men.
The "harp" is the nickname for the Irish. It is also the national musical instrument of Ireland, shaped like a stringed instrument. The Irish national emblem also features a harp, and the Irish people revere and love the harp pattern the most. They admire the color green. They view green as a symbol of life and strength because green brings a beautiful environment and happiness to life. They have a preference for the "shamrock" and regard it as their national flower. Whether men or women, they are accustomed to wearing a bunch of "shamrocks" on their chests during festivals and celebrations. They are also famously fond of dogs. According to relevant data, 40% of Irish households own a dog.
When meeting guests in social situations, the Irish are generally accustomed to shaking hands. When meeting friends and relatives, they are mostly accustomed to kissing or pressing cheeks two or three times instead of shaking hands to show intimacy and friendliness.
General Etiquette
By convention, guests should offer to pay if they have used the telephone.
Appointments and Punctuality
Business meetings should be scheduled in advance, but keep in mind that the Irish do not have a strong sense of time.
Hospitality and Gift Giving
If invited to an Irish home, giving the hostess flowers or chocolates is welcomed. If invited for a meal, a bottle of wine or cheese is an appropriate gift.
Gift giving is not a common practice in business activities.
Conversation
Avoid discussing religion or politics.
Beliefs and Taboos
Most Irish people are Roman Catholic, with a minority being Protestant. "13" and "Friday" are taboo. They view "13" and "Friday" as depressing numbers and dates. Most people have a belief that if they encounter "13" or "Friday" while doing something, misfortune or disaster is likely to befall them.
The Irish avoid cross-handshakes or talking to several people at the same time in a cross-manner. They consider these to be lacking in etiquette and very impolite behavior. They avoid seeing a single magpie. They believe that seeing a single magpie means bad luck is coming. However, if you see two magpies at the same time, it is a sign that good news is coming your way. They do not like others to ask about their whereabouts, salary, age, or marital status. They believe these belong to the realm of personal private life and do not need to be interfered with or questioned by others. They generally pay great attention to efficiency. They are accustomed to the idea that work is work, and they do not want to discuss work matters during rest. Therefore, they do not like to discuss business during breaks or meals.
From "Europe's Rural Area" to "Europe's Silicon Valley," the Secret to Ireland's Transformation 2012-04-27
During his visit to Ireland from February 18 to 20, then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping stated that Ireland has successfully created an example of leaping from an agricultural and pastoral economy to a knowledge-based economy in a short period, and praised Ireland for having "strong industrial cluster advantages and the ability to transform achievements in high-tech industries such as software development and information communication." From "Europe's rural area" to today's "Europe's Silicon Valley," what is the secret to Ireland's transformation?
1. "Investing heavily" in education: Providing talent reserves for transformation
In the 1960s, the proportion of Ireland's labor force engaged in agricultural production was as high as 36%, while only 25% were engaged in industrial production. In the 1980s, Ireland's economy still lagged far behind developed European countries, with an unemployment rate as high as 17%. Young people had no employment opportunities and left their homes in droves to seek development opportunities elsewhere.
The Irish government keenly realized that as a small island nation, to be competitive in the world, it had to follow the path of "rejuvenating the country through science and education," vigorously cultivating high-quality scientific and technological talent, and developing high-tech industries. Since the 1970s, the Irish government began to significantly increase investment in education and expand university enrollment. The proportion of national public education expenditure in national income ranked second among Western countries. It was not until the end of last year, affected by the European debt crisis, that the Irish government announced a slight reduction in education spending. Previously, education spending accounted for 17% of the Irish government's total expenditure.
Ireland also launched educational reforms, with the university system primarily positioned to cultivate a large number of knowledge-based workers for the innovation economy, focusing on practical links, the integration of theory with practice, and the cultivation of student capabilities. Forty years ago, the Irish government realized that the world would enter the information technology era, so it established a computer department at the nationally renowned "Trinity College" and established 12 institutes of technology across the country to cultivate information technology talent.
Ireland's degrees related to information technology have very high technical content. Software students spend their entire third year interning on the production line, and most of their fourth year is spent on independent design. Upon graduation, they possess practical work experience and project leadership capabilities. In the "Global Competitiveness Report" by the IMD Business School in Switzerland, Ireland was once rated as a "country with high-quality education in Europe." Currently, through systematic training, Ireland has a group of world-class software design and development, electronic engineering, and integrated circuit design personnel.
In addition, the Irish government actively attracts high-quality overseas talent to work in Ireland, encouraging Irish youth who have studied and worked in the United States and continental Europe to return home to start businesses; at the same time, it has relaxed immigration policies to attract a large number of foreign technical and knowledge-based labor to work in the country, providing them with various preferential conditions. These returnees brought back the latest technology and capital, injecting new vitality into Ireland's scientific and technological development.
2. Creating a first-class investment environment: Multinational corporations flock in
Ireland began to focus on introducing foreign capital in the 1960s, using foreign funds and technology to develop its own economy. Due to the success of attracting investment, especially the influx of a large amount of foreign capital in the late 1990s, the Irish economy underwent a qualitative leap. Foreign enterprises became the main force in Ireland's economic development and import and export trade, enabling Ireland to transform from an agricultural and pastoral economy into a developed knowledge-based economy in a short period.
In 1959, the Irish government decided to establish the Shannon Free Trade Zone next to Shannon International Airport. At the same time, it established the Shannon Free Airport Development Company to be responsible for promoting the development of the local aviation industry. The Shannon Free Trade Zone attracted a large number of US companies with its tax-free incentives and low-cost advantages, and opened the world's first airport duty-free shop, beginning the practice of using foreign capital to develop the national economy.
Over the past half-century, Ireland has continuously optimized its industrial structure and improved the quality and level of utilizing foreign capital. In the 1970s, the government required that foreign investment focus on developing technology-based industries, thereby eliminating original labor-intensive industries such as textiles, and replacing them with high-tech, capital- and technology-intensive manufacturing industries, such as biochemical pharmaceuticals, information communications, electronic machinery, software, medical devices, and other industries that can create higher added value; at the end of the 1980s, with the approval of the EU, the International Financial Services Centre was established to expand employment, and it began to attract foreign financial institutions to invest in the Irish financial services market, allowing the international financial services industry to flourish. Since then, Ireland has begun to use foreign capital to realize the transition from a service-oriented economy to the era of a knowledge-based economy.
The Irish government has put a lot of effort into attracting investment, using both "hardware" and "software" to strive to create a good investment environment. Ireland concentrated the tens of billions of dollars in development funds it won from the EU on large-scale improvements to transportation facilities to eliminate bottlenecks restricting economic development; for industries such as communications, water, and electricity, it adopted a policy of gradual privatization and the introduction of competition mechanisms to improve service levels; to quickly catch up with advanced international communication levels, the government took a series of measures to rapidly improve domestic and international communication connectivity, becoming the fourth largest broadband network communication country after Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The Irish government established specialized agencies to attract investment, placing the attraction of foreign investment to Ireland to open businesses as the top priority, implementing tax incentives and government subsidies, and protecting the interests of investors; to regulate and coordinate the healthy development of the information industry, the government successively promulgated three laws; the Irish government prioritizes enterprises, the policy environment is relaxed, there is no excessive red tape, and it is easy for enterprises to communicate with the government.
Low tax rates are another major highlight of Ireland's attraction of foreign investment. Ireland's corporate tax rate is only 12.5%, lower than the European average of 23.2%. In view of this, Ireland has attracted a large number of large multinational corporations, becoming the EU headquarters for companies such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM. Seven of the world's top 10 information and communication technology companies have settled in Ireland, and these companies have also driven the growth of local Irish enterprises.
According to data released by the Central Statistics Office of Ireland, the amount of foreign investment attracted by Ireland in 2010 was 19.88 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 6.38%. According to the 2008-2012 Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) business environment rankings, Ireland ranked 11th out of 82 countries in the global sample, making it one of the most attractive business regions in the world.
3. Strong government support: The software industry emerges suddenly
Mentioning Ireland's economic transformation, the software industry is worth writing about. The opening-up policy in the 1960s created the prerequisite for multinational software companies to enter Ireland. In the early 1980s, the unique investment environment attracted a large amount of foreign direct investment to develop the software industry in Ireland. Since then, Ireland has devoted more energy to the development and support of its own software industry, including a series of policy and financial support. For example, establishing funds to promote the development of the software industry and venture capital funds.
The development of Ireland's software industry benefits from the rapid transformation of scientific research results and the mutual connection and close integration between universities, research and development institutions, and enterprises. The government has injected a large amount of capital into scientific and technological development departments to vigorously support university campus companies. The most representative example of this is the University of Limerick and the National Technology Park built in western Ireland.
In 1993, the Irish government decided to list software products as the core of the software industry. At the same time, it also took stimulating software exports as a countermeasure to the small scale of the Irish domestic market. By emphasizing the export-oriented nature of products, the development path of the domestic software industry has become more sustainable, moving up the value chain.
Since 1994, the Irish software industry has emerged suddenly, forming remarkable international competitiveness, driving the high-speed growth of the Irish economy for more than a decade, and has developed into one of the pillar industries of the country's economy. According to a report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2000, Ireland has replaced the United States as the world's largest exporter of software products, and more than 50% of software products sold in the European market are produced in Ireland. As a result, Ireland has won accolades such as "European Software Capital," "Europe's Silicon Valley," "Software Kingdom," "Dynamic High-Tech Country," and "European High-Tech Center."
Data shows that in 2007, the total sales of the Irish software industry reached 22 billion euros, with a total export value of 21.5 billion euros, and exports accounted for 95% of output.
After years of effort, Ireland has gradually occupied a leading international position in fields such as industrial embedded systems, mobile communications, enterprise management, middleware, encryption technology, and security software; in addition, it has also made significant progress in the service industry, such as customer service, distance learning, and call centers.