Ireland was a competitor for the LG Group investment at the outset and IDA Ireland hosted visits and had detailed negotiations with several top level delegations from the company and its advisors. In April 1996, I with the Chief Executive of IDA Ireland and the Irish Ambassador to Korea visited LG Group in Seoul and had discussions with senior officials at the company in relation to the project. At that time I took the opportunity to support IDA's efforts to promote Ireland as a location for the company's overseas investments and also to endorse the benefits of the Government's ongoing pro-business policies.
As I have pointed out in the past a variety of factors come into play in the decisions of foreign companies as to where to locate particular projects. Incentive packages and access to markets are some of the many factors which influence this choice. I understand, too, that proximity to a local market could have been a factor of some significance for certain high volume-low value products within the overall package. In the final analysis, of course, decisions as to where to locate overseas manufacturing operations rest with the owners of companies themselves and are beyond the control of IDA Ireland.