China/Ireland: Renagh Holohan, who will be accompanying the President, previews Mrs McAleese's state visit to China.
President McAleese is not the first senior Irish dignitary to visit China but she arrives in Hong Kong this afternoon as the most important one.
On her nine-day state visit, taking in Beijing and Shanghai, she will open doors for a huge range of Irish businesses seeking opportunities in one of the world's biggest markets. To this end she will be accompanied by 174 business people, representing 82 Irish companies. It is the largest trade mission to leave the country.
As one Irish diplomat remarked last week, a minister will draw a certain number of vital contacts but a head of state will attract those that are otherwise inaccessible. "A state visit opens doors for Irish companies very effectively and in a way that few other events can achieve." In each city she visits she and her husband, Dr Martin McAleese, will meet local politicians and dignitaries; and in Beijing, Shenyang and Shanghai she will address business forums designed to explore future co-operation and trade between the two countries.
The President will host a number of receptions for the visiting and local business people, be conferred with two honorary degrees, at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Shenyang and at Shenzhen University, and meet large numbers of academic administrators. The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, will accompany Mrs McAleese throughout her trip reflecting the importance of educational trade.
The trade delegation, organised by Enterprise Ireland, includes representatives of companies ranging from Allied Irish Banks to Trinity College Dublin and UCC to Tourism Ireland, Iona Technologies, Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, Kennys Bookshop and Shannon College of Hotel Management. In Shenyang she will launch a new joint venture for Glen Dimplex.
Thirty-five education institutes are travelling, 17 manufacturing companies, 16 consultancy firms and 13 businesses from the IT sector.
Mr Peter Coyle, executive director, Enterprise Ireland, said "a lot of companies and colleges were knocked for six by SARS - they couldn't go there. Now there is the opportunity to get back into the market." China is very important, he added, because of its size and inexhaustible supply of labour.
The companies travelling to China this week fall into three categories - those trying to sell into a large and sophisticated market; those seeking to buy value-added goods such as Banta Global Turnkey, which can acquire things like hinges at low prices; and, thirdly, educational institutions seeking students to come to Ireland.
Ireland, Mr Coyle said, punched far above its weight in international trade and the former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji came to Ireland in 2001 to see how our economic performance could be a model for parts of China. The infrastructure bill for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 would cost $12 billion and this presented great opportunities. Enterprise Ireland was spending about €100,000 on the promotion associated with the presidential visit but it was expected that deals of the order of €40 million would result. Vital contacts would also be established.
But Mrs McAleese's visit is not all about business. She is travelling at the invitation of President Hu Jintao and diplomatic and friendship links between the two countries will be on the agenda when they meet for talks at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday. Calls for Mrs McAleese and her delegation to press for more human rights in China are unlikely to bear fruit. A spokeswoman said that, while the President was mindful of the situation, this was a state visit and it was not appropriate at head-of-state level to raise individual cases. This was dealt with always at diplomatic and government level, but she hoped UN values and principles would be espoused.
The President will visit the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China and Peking University. On Friday there is a gala performance of Riverdance in the Great Hall of the People in front of an audience of 6,000. Mrs McAleese will be playing host to 600 guests. Irish culture as well as Irish business will be on display.