President of WIT Willie Donnelly featured in BusinessWorld.ie’s website following his discussion at the eDigiregion conference held at the WIT Arena
The President of a leading Institute of Technology has claimed that Ireland is home to the top, international players in the agriculture and ICT industries and has the potential to become a Global leader in smart agriculture.
Prof Donnelly is already globally renowned as the co-founder of the Telecommunications, Software and Systems Group (TSSG) at Waterford Institute of Technology, a major incubation hub for ICT innovation.
He now wants technology innovators to partner with leaders in Irish agriculture within the region and across Ireland to drive sustainable regional growth and put Ireland on the global map as leaders in the agri-tech industry.
The alignment of the ICT and agriculture industries has the potential to totally re-energise the Irish economy outside of Dublin and totally transform our regional economies he says.
Speaking at the second day of the eDigiregion 'Sustaining Regional Innovation and Growth Through Partnership' conference at the WIT Arena, Prof Donnelly said, "Ireland is already a global player in the agriculture industry and 9 of the top ICT companies have their European headquarters in Ireland."
He added, "We have the potential to be a leader in smart and precision agriculture through the combination and the alignment of the ICT industry and the agriculture industry. We have established and put together a proposal for investment in precision agriculture. Its focus is to IT and to use the knowledge within the region to drive a new agri-tech industry."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
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