Ireland has been ranked as the best country in the world in which to do business.
That's according to a report by leading US financial magazine Forbes - which praises Ireland for our low corporation tax, protectment for investors and stock market performance.
Forbes also says Ireland's financial crisis makes us "more attractive" for multinationals - giving rise to low wage costs and a large labour pool.
Ireland's rise to the top spot of the Forbes rankings from 6th place last year - puts us ahead of New Zealand, Hong Kong and the Scandanavian economies rounding out the top five.
The magazine praises Ireland for maintaining an "extremely pro-business environment" - noting that we're the only nation to rank among the top 15 per cent in every one of the criteria used to gauge the best countries - including low tax burden, investor protection and personal freedom.
It says that our improved performance owes a lot to a stock market which they describe as being "on fire" - with the best return over the past 12 months of any of the top 30.
However, the key to Ireland's ranking is all about foreign investment - namely our 12-point-5 per cent corporation tax rate, an educated workforce and common language.
It notes that US firms have invested 130bn dollars in Ireland between 2008 and 2012 - more than the past 58 years combined.
Perhaps controversially, Forbes says the financial crisis is seen as a good thing - highlighting falling wages and our "stubbornly high rate of unemployment" of 12-point-5 per cent providing a large labour pool to hire from.
