Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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490. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his proposals to obtain markets for Irish manufacturing and professional service companies in the Middle East and North Africa; if engineering and infrastructure investment has increased in these areas in recent years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36917/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Enterprise Ireland has a strong team in place to assist Irish companies to address opportunities across the Middle East. From their offices in Dubai and Riyadh, the agency has an experienced and locally well connected workforce in place, to provide advice and assistance to individual client companies who have this region as a business priority. The markets where most attention has been concentrated to date are UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, with markets such as Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait considered as offering good opportunities in certain sectors. There has been a series of Ministerial-led Trade Missions to the region over the past years and Enterprise Ireland is now planning a further Trade Mission to the focus markets of UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia early in 2014.

Enterprise Ireland has an exceptionally well connected Market Research Centre where client companies who wish to brief themselves on these countries can access the latest databases and available business research.

Throughout 2013, Enterprise Ireland has had delegations of Irish companies from the Education, Travel Technology, Consumer Retail, Construction, Engineering and ICT sectors participating in trade events in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. By year end almost 60 Irish companies will have participated in these events.

In the past two years alone, Enterprise Ireland client companies established 51 new offices in the MENA region, demonstrating a strong commitment to building lasting business relationships with their Middle East Partners.

Enterprise Ireland had also focussed on Libya for a number of years prior to the outbreak of hostilities there. Enterprise Ireland continues to monitor the situation there closely and there is currently some activity around sectors such as aviation and healthcare.

Other markets in North Africa have not been highlighted as priority by Enterprise Ireland due to the relative lack of activity and interest by companies in these markets, with available resources currently being dedicated to the more accessible markets in the Gulf.

Regarding the Middle East, the majority of the estimated $4.3TRN in infrastructure projects, to be completed by 2020, will take place in the Gulf Cooperation Council States of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. In 2013, Data from the Middle East Economic Digest projects shows that Saudi Arabia leads the region with close to $ 600 billion worth in projects to be awarded, followed by the UAE with slightly more than $ 350 billion of contracts and Kuwait with a little over $ 150 billion. Between Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain, contracts of more than $ 250 billion are expected to be awarded this year.