Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern offically opened the Irish Management Institute’s National Productivity Centre, which has been sponsored by Microsoft.

The project was launched last November by Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, at an event attended by Microsoft International President, Jean-Philippe Courtois, Joe Macri, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland and Tom McCarthy, CEO of the IMI. The centre is located on the IMI campus in Sandyford Co. Dublin.

The NPC, which cost €2m, is a collaboration between the IMI and Microsoft. The centre which has already been dubbed “CEO Summer Camp” aims to help Senior Managers and CEOs improve overall levels of productivity through ICT and innovation.

Microsoft published a report in 2005 in which they highlighted how important they thought technology was to increasing productivity.

Other big supporters of the NPC include Dell, Eircom, Fujitsu Siemens and HP.