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FEATURE | China

a new strategy is currently being developed for the region, and Enterprise Ireland is eager to give advice. “At present, exports to China are around 2 per cent of total Irish exports,” he says. “We would hope to see that figure grow as a percentage of the whole and there is a high level of commitment to achieve that. Minister of State, Billy Kelleher TD, was there last year leading a few companies out. The Taoiseach led a major group there in 2008 and Bertie Ahern did so in 2005. There have been consistent attempts to market Ireland as a significant source of high quality goods and services.”

“dePendIng on

HoW yoU coUnT THe

nUMBerS, cHInA HAS

PIPPed jAPAn AS

THe Second LArgeST

econoMy In THe

WorLd.”

– dAvId Byrne

David Byrne, Head of High Growth Markets, Enterprise Ireland.

THE MARKET OF TODAY

Deirdre Walsh, however, is a bit more anxious. She feels that the situation is more urgent than the government recognises. “I think that for the powers that be, the strategies for Asia and China are very much on the periphery,” she says. “Tourism Ireland and Enterprise Ireland fly the flag overseas and do a great job, but the energy China gets is a fraction of what established markets like Germany, the UK or America receive. Over the last year, things are

definitely swinging around and (at China Green) we are finally getting a lot of enquiries about the export side of things. However, we cannot be complacent. What China is trying to do right now is to not only manufacture cheaply, but to start innovating and designing and doing the value-added stuff that we see ourselves doing as a smart economy. We really need to make our mark on those sectors now before they start doing it themselves.”

“The headlines have all been about China as the ‘factory of the world’,” notes Walsh. “Then it was said that China was the ‘market of tomorrow’. When we did seminars about China in the past, there was always a question mark at the end of that statement. Then the question mark came off. Now it is even clearer – China’s not the market of tomorrow; it’s the market of today.”

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