1. 20% increase in exports of goods in 2015
There was good news for exporters this week as latest CSO stats showed a 20% increase in goods exports for 2015, compared to the previous year. Goods exports totalled €111,038 million for the year, up from €18,422 million.
The preliminary trade surplus for 2015 was also the largest on record, reaching €44,015 million. Other notable figures include exports of medical and pharmaceutical products accounting for 27% of total exports at €30,174 million, a 36% increase on 2014.
Exports of food and live animals and beverages and tobacco to the USA totalled €758 million in 2015, an increase of €255 million (+51%) compared with 2014 .
2. Cork to co-host Startup Nations Summit
The Startup Nations Summit will take place in Ireland this year, the first time it has been held in Europe. That's following Ireland winning a competitive global bid to co-host the Summit, which will take place in Cork this November.
The event, now in its fifth year, gathers a network of start-up community leaders and policymakers to help enable high impact entrepreneurship in nations across the globe. is likely to draw hundreds of start-up policy makers, advisors, public and private sector organisations from around the world, who are interested in understanding and sharing international best practice in helping high impact entrepreneurs start and scale new enterprises.
Startup Ireland, who previously ran the Startup Gathering in October 2015, led the effort in partnership with Cork Innovates.
3. Celebrating innovation in business
Registration is now open for the Irish Times Innovation Awards, in association with Science Foundation Ireland and Teagasc.
The awards showcase innovation excellence in business across a wide range of sectors: from drug delivery systems and state of the art network switching, to anti-allergy pillows, leading technologies for cleaning and disinfection and a breakthrough system for low cost wastewater aeration.
#allaboutjobs spoke to last year's winners, Mayo-based company Panel Duct. You can read the full interview here.
Find out more about the Awards here.
Today is also the last day to apply for the National Enterprise Awards, run through the Local Enterprise Office network. Find out more about applying through your Local Enterprise Office.