Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Annual Report 2014: Enterprise Ireland

1:30 pm

Ms Julie Sinnamon:

Two weeks ago we had representatives of 36 companies in China. Looking back at trade missions in the past few years, one can one see that there is now a better fit between what companies have and what China is looking for, including companies on the food side; the environmental side, where there are significant issues and for which we have products that are suitable; the technology-software side and the agri-tech side. We have from there being a lot of goodwill in the Chinese market to do business in Ireland to having got down to companies that have a strong proposition where there is a gap in China. While there is stuff in the news about growth rates dropping to 7% in China, there is a better fit for what we have and we are much more focused on the companies that have the right products for that market. There are, therefore, many opportunities.