Asian trade mission leads to €40m in deals

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton wrapped up an Enterprise Ireland trade mission to China and South Korea yesterday, which saw over €40 million in trade and investment announcements by Irish companies.

On the final day of the mission, Dublin-based company Fishtree, providers of learning platforms, signed a strategic alliance to partner with SK Telecom, Korea's leading telecommunications company, and a global leader in innovation.

Kim Yoon Soo, head of the smart learning business division for South Korea Telecom, has described the goals of the alliance, stating: “This partnership aims to create synergies by mutual efforts through integrating technologies and global marketing, so that we expand the base of smart learning business together.”

The partnership is focused on offering new and combined solutions for classrooms all over the world, with leading hardware, software and content solutions.

“We have clearly made a very conscious decision to up our level of trade missions, we want to build an export-led economy and it’s delivering in terms of employment,” said Mr Bruton.

“We’ve reopened the IDA office here in Korea, increased our strength in the Enterprise Ireland office, this is the third ministerial visit this year and we want to build a very strong platform,” said Bruton.

“The Enterprise Ireland companies have grown up in an environment that demands very high standards in the ICT cluster, in the medical devices cluster, in the biopharma cluster, so we have support companies in those sectors that have a very good fit. We’d be very optimistic that we will see a substantial increase in the number of companies with their feet on the ground here in Korea,” said Mr Bruton.

Ambassador Aingeal O’Donoghue said there was huge empathy with what Ireland had done in successfully dealing with its debt woes.

“Out of a very difficult situation for us at home, that was something that has quite a positive dimension. Visits like this help build the process beyond that into the sectors of excellence,” said Ms O’Donoghue.

Contracts between Irish and Asian companies worth just under €5 million and the creation of 20 jobs were among the initial, immediate results of the five-day trade mission to Beijing, Shanghai and Seoul, in which 41 companies participated.

There were also 13 bilateral meetings with IDA Ireland target companies, as well as engagements with dozens more multinationals, and investments of €36 million in business opportunities in Asia were agreed by Irish companies during the mission.