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Martin announces new Africa Trade Strategy
Last updated on 13 Aug, 2010
Summary:
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, TD, has confirmed that his Department is to lead a new Trade Strategy to support Irish businesses in Africa. Ireland’s network of Embassies on the continent will help our firms identify opportunities and use their local knowledge and contacts to help businesses get access to key markets.
Minister Martin said:
“Our long and positive relationship with Africa through Irish Aid has gained Ireland a good reputation there, as well as an extensive network of contacts. I believe that we should consider how best to use our aid programme, and the contacts and experience we have built up through it, to leverage support for Irish business in Africa.
As a first step, I intend to instruct our Missions in Africa to give greater priority to promoting economic and business links with Ireland. I will ask the Heads of those Missions to put in place arrangements to identify opportunities for Irish businesses and to ensure that support is provided to Irish companies seeking to access these markets. We are already doing this in a number of countries but I believe that we can do more.
Secondly, we will seek to develop our educational links with Africa. Ireland has many links with Africa though education provided by Irish missionaries and lay teachers there, and with African professionals who may have been educated here. Our aid programme has also contributed significantly to education in Africa. I will ask our Missions to set up alumni networks to maintain contact with people who have been educated in Ireland so that we can develop our relationship with them as they advance through their careers.
In recent years, I have hosted a number of networking events for Embassies in Dublin and the Chambers of Commerce in Dublin and, most recently in Cork. These events enable direct contacts between companies and representatives of countries abroad where there may be opportunities to do business. I intend to host one of these events especially for African Missions to help identify opportunities for Irish companies in those countries.
I will also ask Irish Aid to support an initiative by the resident African Ambassadors in Dublin, which they suggested to me recently, to promote a business-to-business 2event within the next year. This would bring together potential business partners in Ireland and Africa and enable them to talk directly to each other and look for ways of working together. UCD Smurfit Business School has expressed an interest in supporting this event.”