Ireland has smashed its target of hitting €100bn worth of trade with Asia by 2025 – two years ahead of schedule.
Two-way trade between Ireland and the Asia region is now worth €120bn.
That’s according to the secretary-general at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Declan Hughes who was speaking at the two-day Asia Matters ‘Growing Global Business with Asia from the North West Knowledge Hub’ conference that occurred earlier this week.
“Among the missions planned for the remainder of 2023 is a major Government visit to the Republic of Korea, with a series of trade and investment objectives, centred on Seoul”
“We have an Asia-Pacific strategy, and a clear target of that was to increase our trade with the region to €100bn by 2025,” he said.
“And we are already ahead of that target, with €50bn in goods and €70bn in services.”
Trade mission to Asia
Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, also told the summit, organised by think-tank Asia Matters, that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to lead a high-powered trade mission to South Korea next month.
“In 2022, we had ministerial trade missions to Japan, Vietnam, and Singapore,” said Minister McConalogue in his opening address.
“While in 2023, we’ve already had visits to China as well as a mission to South Korea associated with St Patrick’s Day.
“Among the missions planned for the remainder of 2023 is a major Government visit to the Republic of Korea, with a series of trade and investment objectives, centred on Seoul.”
Welcoming both announcements, Asia Matters’ Executive Director, Martin Murray, said any Irish company wanting to boost foreign orders must now look at the opportunities that exist across Asia.
“For historical and cultural reasons, Irish exporters have traditionally focused on the United States, United Kingdom and Europe.
“The announcement by the Secretary General, however, shows just how important the Asian market is to Ireland.
“Earlier this year, the IMF said it expects its Asia’s GDP to expand by 4.6% during 2023, up from the 3.8% growth recorded in 2022.
“But seeking out new customers abroad is rarely easy, as many of the excellent contributors to this conference know, so I would encourage anyone who has any queries about taking those first important steps towards Asia to get in touch via the Asia Matters website.”
The two-day ‘Growing Global Business with Asia from the North West Knowledge Hub’ conference continues today (Tues) at the Letterkenny campus of the Atlantic Technological University (ATU).
Today’s sessions include contributions from the President of the Atlantic Technological University (ATU), Dr Orla Flynn; Professor Malachy O’Neill, Director of Regional Engagement at Ulster University; and Sylvester Clancy, Executive Director at FinTrU.
Britain’s Ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston, also spoke at the event event which was held in partnership with ATU and Údarás na Gaeltachta.
In May, at the launch of Asia Matters’ Business Awards, it emerged that over 600 Enterprise Ireland companies are now exporting of over €2 billion worth of goods to Asia – an increase of 80% in the last five years.
For more information about the 2023 awards, which are being held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Dublin on November 15, please click here
Photo by Chris Slupski on Unsplash
