NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 27 November
27-11-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
Irish firms sign EUR40m in contracts in UAE | Nokia to exit Japanese market
Irish firms on a trade mission to the United Arab Emirates this week have signed contracts valued at over EUR40 million in new exports. Tanaiste Mary Coughlan, who made the trip with 88 Irish companies, said that 32 new contracts were signed by Irish businesses from a variety of sectors such as construction services, engineering, architecture, software and financial services. "Companies offering high-value and sophisticated manufactured products such as medical devices were also successful in securing business in the Gulf region and one software firm opened a new office in Dubai," she said. Irish exports to the UAE have more than doubled in the past four years and sales by Irish-owned SMEs increased by 34 percent last year.
Representatives of a number of Chinese research institutions and universities met with senior management at Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) this week. The representatives, from Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS) and Tsinghua University, were in Athlone to develop relations between the respective institutions. AIT and ISCAS signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Embassy of Ireland in Beijing in December 2007. Under that agreement it's hoped that AIT researchers will complete a period of their research at ISCAS, Beijing in the future. There are currently three researchers from ISCAS completing research projects at the Software Research Institute in AIT. ISCAS's key focus is on the fundamental theories of computer science, as well as software technologies and their applications.
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government John Gormley launched the European Recycling Platform's Christmas Waste Battery Recycling appeal on Thursday. The equivalent in weight of 80 million AA batteries are sold in Ireland every year and it's estimated that one-third of all sales occur over the Christmas period alone. "If everyone in Ireland recycled one battery between now and Christmas, 4,000,000 batteries would be diverted from landfill. I am delighted to say that we have far exceeded our EU targets for electrical waste collection and I now challenge the general public to achieve the same results for battery recycling," said Martin Tobin, general manager of ERP Ireland.
Around 50 venture capital and angel investors from Ireland, Europe, Japan and the US attended Enterprise Ireland's International Investor Forum in London on Thursday. There they met with 20 Irish life science and 'cleantech' companies, who made pitches to the investors. Cleantech refers to technology products or services that improve operational performance or efficiency while reducing costs, energy consumption, waste or pollution. "Life science and cleantech are very important sectors for Ireland and are generating new technology-based companies that can excel in world markets and are therefore of great interest to these potential investors," said Niall O'Donnelan, head of investment services at Enterprise Ireland. Among the companies presenting to investors were Stokes Bio and ProCure in the life science sector, and Wavebob in the cleantech sector.
European telecoms ministers on Thursday backed plans to limit the price of sending text messages while abroad in Europe. The ministers agreed that mobile phone companies could not charge European consumers more than EUR0.11 for sending text messages while abroad in the region. The measure was agreed at a meeting in Brussels and is part of broader package aimed at reducing the cost of using mobile phones when travelling in Europe.
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has said it is to stop selling phones in the Japanese market because it said it has not made any inroads in the market and its market share remains low. The firm will however continue to sell its high-end Vertu mobile device in Japan. Vertu, a brand owned by Nokia, makes high-end handsets that are often embellished with titanium, gold, jewels and crystals. Nokia also said its global research and development as well as sourcing operations in Japan will continue.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 