Bruton seeks to expand trade and tourism links with India

Ireland is seeking long-term business, trade, educational and tourist links with India to attract investment and increase trade.

"We are looking to partner high-growth economies like India for mutual benefit," Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton told The Irish Times in New Delhi yesterday. Mr Bruton is heading a 100-strong delegation of Irish educationists, businessmen from 42 financial, manufacturing and travel companies to boost comprehensive ties with India.

On the second leg of his five-day India tour, the Minister said Ireland offers Indian IT, pharmaceutical, bio-pharma, financial and engineering companies "nearshoring" facilities to expand their footprint across Europe and eventually the US.

He said that with 17 Indian firms currently operating in Ireland he aimed to treble not only the €2.25 billion bilateral trade with India over the next decade, but also the number of Indian firms operating here.

Dublin plans
On his first stopover in Bangalore at the weekend, Mr Bruton announced that two local IT companies – Aditi Technologies and Synowledge – were planning to establish their overseas operations in Dublin, which together would create 75 jobs. Aditi is a "cloud first" IT company with over 30 per cent of its business in retail, travel and online betting generated from Europe.

The Connecticut-headquartered Synowledge specialises in providing drug safety and IT-related services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical companies.

Mr Bruton said Ireland is poised to more than double to 2,000 the number of Indian students seeking admission into Irish educational institutions, especially in postgraduate disciplines, by end-2014. By 2018 he expects this number to increase to more than 5,000 students.

The delegation is also targeting potential Indian tourists to Ireland whose numbers have annually increased 20 per cent to almost 25,000 this year following persistent and successful promotional campaigns.

The Minister who travels to India’s financial capital Mumbai today before returning home later this week said he is determined through intensive meetings in the port city, to help Irish investment and exports expand in a high-growth market and help create jobs.