The Christian Brothers and other Irish missionaries paved the way for the success of Denis O'Brien's Digicel telecoms company in Central America and the Pacific region, the entrepreneur claimed yesterday.
Mr O'Brien said many of the government ministers he had encountered in countries where he has set up telecoms operations had been educated by Christian Brothers, including the prime minister of Samoa.
"It helped massively to be an Irish Catholic," he said, adding that it was "a hell of a calling card for us".
Mr O'Brien was speaking at the agm of small business lobby group Isme, where he was giving the biennial lecture.
Digicel, which is the fastest growing telecoms operator in the Caribbean, has operations in 22 markets.
"Michael Lowry was not involved in the granting of any of these licences," Mr O'Brien joked in a reference to the Moriarty tribunal's investigation into the former Fine Gael minister's awarding of the second Irish mobile licence to O'Brien's telecoms venture, Esat, in 1995.
Mr O'Brien claimed he bought Digicel's initial licence in Jamaica over the phone as he was drinking rum in the Morrison Hotel, having spotted an advertisement for the licence in the Financial Times.
He advised small and medium companies to take a similarly adventurous approach and look beyond Europe for entrepreneurial success.
"I believe the real opportunities for the members of Isme are in the Middle East, India, China, southern Asia and even Africa. If any of you are really gutsy and want really high risk and high reward, come to Haiti," Mr O'Brien said.
Haiti, which is the poorest economy in the western hemisphere, had no government except a UN presence when Digicel first went there. "Now there are 1.4 million people in Haiti running around with our phones."
Mr O'Brien said he wouldn't be as pessimistic about the Irish economy as some commentators, saying there was every chance that the economy would grow by 4 - 5 per cent this year.
He would not comment on his intentions regarding Independent News & Media, in which he has built up his stake over recent weeks.
Mr O'Brien, who also has a holding in Aer Lingus, said the airline should stay in the hands of its existing shareholders. "It would be a very bad thing for the country if Ryanair bought the company."
But he said it was "too early to say" if he would move to sell his shareholding in the airline if the European Commission blocks Ryanair's takeover attempt.
Of the general election, Mr O'Brien said it was "turning into Punchestown", in that "nobody can really call the outcome".
Isme has appointed JJ Killian, managing director of Clonmel logistics company Flancare Holdings, as its new chairman.
Mr Killian succeeds Daniel Hickey and will hold the office for two years. He said he would focus lobbying on areas such as a lack of proper national infrastructure, including low levels of broadband penetration.
