TELECOMS : DUBLIN'S PRIORITIES: SMES AND E-COMMERCE.

Ireland, with its corporate tax rate of only 12%, is home to the major digital economy players in Europe, including Facebook, Microsoft and Google. At the same time, it is still dealing with the impact of its banking crisis and trying to build growth in promising areas, especially telecommunications and e-commerce. Ironically, though, small and medium-sized companies based in the country, formerly known as the Celtic tiger', are having a hard time making a breakthrough on the web, like those in most member states.

"A small number of large players may very well end up dominating e-commerce in Europe, with the risk of leaving smaller firms on the sidelines," commented recently Ireland's Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte. This is confirmed by recent research in Ireland showing that e-shoppers show little inclination to "buy local" in many sectors, he added. For the minister, it is becoming urgent to come up with business solutions, such as simpler ways for online payments (which currently involve a lot of intermediaries) to help support Europe's small enterprises.

Boosting the presence of SMEs in e-commerce will therefore be one of the digital economy priorities of the Irish EU...