The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has opened a new €2 million productivity centre, aimed at helping companies improve their productivity.

Based at the IMI campus in Sandyford, the National Productivity Centre (NPC) has been established by the Irish Management Institute (IMI) and Microsoft Ireland, and supported by companies including Dell, Eircom, Fujitsu Siemens and Hewlett Packard.

Speaking at the official opening, the Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland Joe Macri, said: "According to research from McKinsey and the London School of Economics, the combination of improving technology, management capability and innovation can yield productivity improvements of up to 20 per cent. That’s why bringing together the expertise of both organisations delivers real insight on how to address productivity and gives executives from the private and public sector the opportunity to explore how these kinds of solutions can be applied to their own organisations."

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Mr Ahern welcomed the "timely initiative", given to Ireland’s need to improve its productivity performance.

"Recent numbers suggest that productivity growth is slowing, especially in smaller indigenous companies," he said. "Nationally, we have got to let large and small companies alike to champion productivity as the new competitiveness imperative, not least in the expanding services sector on which our economy is increasingly reliant."

(JM)