REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT AN ENTERPRISE IRELAND BUSINESS BREAKFAST - RIYADH
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT AN ENTERPRISE IRELAND BUSINESS BREAKFAST - INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL RIYADH MONDAY 13 FEBRUARY
Ladies and Gentleman,
This is a very welcome opportunity to celebrate the increasingly strong and diverse trade links between Ireland and Saudi Arabia and to meet the many senior Saudi officials and business executives whose interest in Ireland is so central to our two way trade. To my compatriots, I sincerely hope that this visit will be of significant value for both you and your Saudi customers and partners.
Ireland has, I am glad to say, witnessed significant growth in Irish exports to the Gulf region over the past decade, particularly to Saudi Arabia. While trade between our two countries is still comparatively small, the latest available figures show a very positive upward trend, with Irish exports to Saudi Arabia increasing by around 14 % last year. Irish companies are increasingly keen to develop business relationships in the region and Irish trade missions to the Gulf region are now an annual event, with companies visiting Saudi in each of the last three years and again now in 2006.
We believe that there is substantial potential for accelerated trade growth in the years ahead. We see trade opportunities right across the business spectrum, and particularly in sectors where Irish companies are already active in your country. I would like to touch briefly on a number of sectors of major potential opportunity:
In banking and telecoms software applications, Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in IT infrastructure, an area where Irish products have a particularly strong competitive edge. The success of Ireland’s software industry is arguably the most striking example of our emergence in recent years as an international centre of gravity and a major global player in the world of high technology. Innovative software developed in Ireland is currently deployed in every continent and by many of the world’s leading governments, financial services, telecoms and corporate organisations. Software is one of Ireland’s most important and fast-expanding industries, comprising over 600 Irish-owned software companies and we are one of the top exporters of software world-wide.
In Process Control & Automation and in Construction, we see excellent opportunities for Irish companies in providing products and services, especially given the huge utility investments made by Saudi Arabia in infrastructure and automation.
In the Oil & Gas Sectors and in Engineering Services, Irish companies already have a great deal of experience of these sectors, working with companies throughout the Gulf region.
Where Third Level Education is concerned, Ireland has a formidable international standing, well known here in Saudi Arabia, as a centre of quality education and training. Ireland’s long tradition as a provider of quality education is backed by the high standards of its education services, internationally recognised qualifications and the worldwide reputation of its training. For many years Ireland has attracted students from the Gulf Region to Irish Third Level Education institutions. While traditionally students have enrolled in medicine, many other courses are now becoming popular. In the academic year 2004-2005, there were more than 700 Gulf and Middle East students in Ireland and we hope this will continue well into the future.
Accompanying me on this visit is a trade mission of Irish companies who, between them, represent a wide range of sectors, including software, telecommunications, third level education, consultancy, financial services, electrical engineering, aviation, food and agribusiness. Many are already doing business in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region or are in the process of doing so. Let me mention just a few examples:
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has been active in Saudi Arabia since the 1970s, when the College was asked to provide courses and examinations leading to the Fellowship examinations by King Faizal, University in Dammam and King Abdulaziz, University in Jeddah. Among other associations with Saudi Arabia, the College is also the main contractor for the Ministry of Defence and Aviation’s hospital in Tabuk, and, in the process, has developed specialist knowledge in hospital management, healthcare recruitment and healthcare management training.
Riverdeep Interactive Learning provides curriculum-based Internet and CD-ROM learning experiences to more than 45,000 schools in over 20 countries worldwide. Last month, Riverdeep established a new joint venture company in Saudi Arabia with Obeikan Investment Group, which will adapt the market and implement the Riverdeep e-learning software for use in schools in Saudi Arabia, the GCC countries, and throughout the Arab world.
The European Computer Driving Licence Foundation, based in Dublin, Ireland, is the worldwide governing body and licensing authority for the global standard in end-user computer skills certification. ECDL is achieving significant success with GOTEVOT, the Saudi government vocational training authority to provide upskilling through the organisation.
Dublin City University which is recognised nationally and internationally as a centre of academic excellence, with links reaching across the globe intends, subject to agreement, to offer two scholarships to Saudi Arabian students to study in Ireland.
RMI is an Irish company that addresses a range of Risk Management issues, and security threats. The Gulf region represents an important area of growth for RMI where it has gained a number of large assignments and is now seeking a distributor for its products in Saudi Arabia.
Dunagri Engineering has planned and managed a wide variety of agricultural and agro-industry enterprises in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region, including The Saudi Ministry of Agriculture, NADEC, TADCO, and the Saudi Arabian Agricultural Bank.
Adaptive Mobile, which supplies security solutions to many leading mobile telecommunication carriers in the world, has recently signed a major deal with Saudi Telecoms – Al Jawal to provide filters for screening un-Islamic content from mobile calls, SMS and Internet content to mobile handsets.
The calibre of these and the other innovative Irish companies here today demonstrates that Ireland is a world-class supplier of goods and services, offering competitive, high quality and technologically advanced solutions.
The past ten years have seen a significant market re-orientation by Irish exporters and specifically by SME companies. The European market is Ireland's principal trading area, but about one quarter of all indigenous Irish exports are now sold in markets beyond Europe – and the Middle East is increasingly in the sights of Irish companies, particularly for technology and internationally traded service companies.
One of the purposes of my visit is to raise the profile of Ireland as an attractive trading partner for Saudi Arabia. Yours is our most important market in the Middle East. Your economy is one of the largest in the region. It is globally renowned for its rapid development and the huge size and scale of projects planned to ensure the economic future of its citizens.
As an entrepreneurial people we see opportunities for Irish companies in Saudi Arabia across many sectors and there has been very significant recent progress in terms of our actively seeking out new business. We also see opportunities in partnering with Saudi companies and sharing their expertise, relationships and international market access strategies.
As a people of welcome and of commitment to deepening friendships among the world’s family of nations, while our focus today is on trade and investment, we do not forget that, in doing more business with Saudi Arabia, we are also building up the networks of mutual understanding and respect which help promote peace, goodwill and global neighbourliness.
I thank each of you for your interest in developing our bilateral links and I wish each one of you every success.
Shukran Jazilan. Thank you.