Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Enterprise Ireland’s (EI’s) Singapore office has been located within ‘Ireland House’ in the Ireland Embassy since 2000. The office supports EI client companies to achieve export growth by ensuring they are market-ready and have sufficient market intelligence on the Southeast Asia (SEA) region.

Asia will be a central driver of future world growth, with economic forecasts (IMF 2023) suggesting that as much as 70% of global growth in the coming years will come from the region. According to latest figures (2021), the total number of people living in the ten Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has reached 663.9 million, making ASEAN the third most populous economy in the world after China and India.

Singapore remains EI’s business hub for SEA and continues to support new and scaling companies to access opportunities within Singapore and other SEA markets. In recent years, EI has established representative offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2020) and Kuala Lumpur (2021) to support continued regional growth and business opportunities.

The EI team in Singapore consists of seven staff members focussing on sectors including Edutech, Financial Services and Fintech, High Tech Construction, Agritech, Life Sciences and Digital Health, Digital Technologies, IOT & Cybersecurity, Cleantech & Sustainability, Consumer Retail, and Aviation.

The Singapore office and their representative offices facilitate and broker introductions between EI client companies and key companies in the ASEAN region to achieve export growth. Market advisors directly support clients, and scaling and diversification in the region are assisted through one-to-one engagements between clients and advisors. In addition to facilitating introductions and B2B meetings, EI provides support on market validation, competitor intelligence, value proposition, channel strategy, sales processes and establishing a market presence. The Singapore and ASEAN market activity also includes notable trade events and inward Ministerial visits.

Enterprise Ireland will continue to focus on:

1. Driving scale through one-to-one client work within the key sectors of opportunity and clients who have scaling capabilities in the region.

2. Proactively seeking new market opportunities enabling clients to grow and diversify to new markets within ASEAN.

3. Assisting clients to build presences in ASEAN markets.

CSO data for ASEAN export and import values is illustrated in the table below.

ASEAN	2019	2020	2022
Exports to market from Ireland (€ million)
Goods	1,305	1,293	2,210
Imports to Ireland from market (€ million)
Goods	2,412	3,988	3,636

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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An important element of the IDA’s strategy is to diversify its market reach by broadening the geographic profile of investment. ‘Pioneering Markets’, which is the name given to the new markets identified to extend IDA’s global footprint, was established within the Growth Markets Division in 2019. This approach has been supported by a number of in-market Pathfinders, who are part-time consultants, located across multiple geographies including South Africa.

Since appointment in 2019, IDA Ireland’s South African pathfinder has been instrumental in promoting Ireland as an investment location. In this regard, the IDA has engaged with a number of South African companies and hosted several itineraries for technology and fintech firms interested in investing in Ireland. Moreover, the Dublin-based IDA team members have also participated in various South Africa focused events and speaking opportunities both in-market and in Ireland.

The IDA has welcomed investments from South Africa in the key sectors of Technology, Financial Services and Life Sciences and there is a growing number of South African companies with FDI operations in Ireland. These companies include Investec, Aspen and OUTsurance. According to my Department's Annual Employment Survey 2022, there are 11 South African companies located in Ireland which employ over 200 people. While there has been further investment in 2023, the data relating to 2023 will not be available until early next year.

South Africa will continue to be a key target market for IDA Ireland’s Growth Markets Division. IDA Ireland is committed to proactively position Ireland as the perfect location for South African companies to base their European operations and is confident of more investments from South Africa during 2024 and beyond, leading to further job creation in the coming years.