Irish Trade Mission Builds on Record Russian Sales
Text by John Bonar
John McGuinness T.D., Ireland’s Minister for International Trade, led a trade mission organised by Enterprise Ireland to Russia at the end of September. Irish exports to Russia are growing year-on-year with recent figures showing an increase of 25% in the first five months of 2007. Ireland’s sales to Russia are currently running at an annual level of around ?600 million, with traded services exceeding merchandise.
Minister McGuinness said that ICT (information and communication technologies) accounted for 40% of Irish exports, and Irish-owned software providers were planning to make serious in-roads into the Russian market. Half the participants on the Trade Mission were from the ICT sector and he was confident that more Irish software companies would be entering the market, either by themselves or with Russian and international systems integrators. In particular, Ireland’s world-class cluster of wireless technology companies were attracted to Russia, which is one of the largest mobile phone markets in the world.
Enterprise Ireland in Russia works with approximately 250 Irish companies active in CIS markets.
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