REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A TRADE DINNER IN THE HOTEL PRINCIPE DI SAVOIA, MILAN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A TRADE DINNER IN THE HOTEL PRINCIPE DI SAVOIA, MILAN TUESDAY, 20 MARCH, 2007
Dia dhíbh a chairde go léir anocht. Tá an-áthas bheith I bhur measc anocht.
I wish you the traditional Beannachtaí na Féile Phadraig, blessings of St. Patrick as we in Ireland celebrate what used to be our national day but is rapidly becoming our national month for the Irish like the Italians have a love of life and of celebration that knows no bounds. It is a wonderful gift to have for it is infectious and has generated a worldwide St. Patrick’s Day Festival that sees the green worn in every corner of the globe from Milan to Moscow, from Dublin to Dubai.
It is a delight to be in Milan on the first day of a four-day visit to Italy and I thank you for that warm and generous welcome and for the chance to meet in person so many representatives of leading Irish companies and their Italian partners and customers.
Thanks to An Bord Bia, Tourism Ireland and IDA Ireland we have an important opportunity to meet, to network, to build friendships, renew old ones and to celebrate the increasing trade between both our countries, a story that is the hands of your work. And it is quite a story for we have witnessed significant growth in business relations between our two countries in recent years. Almost 60 Italian companies are now operating in Ireland, demonstrating the level of interest and opportunity that Italian businesses have identified in our Country. And Ireland has returned the compliment with a 50% increase in the number of Irish companies which have a direct presence in the Italian market. It is good to see them and their customers so well represented here this evening.
Ireland and Italy have always enjoyed strong historic and commercial relations. We have a high degree of cultural compatibility and since we get on well together it is no surprise that we like doing business together. Thanks to your efforts bilateral trade reached nearly 5 billion Euro last year and with the total sales by Irish companies in Italy worth 3.6 billion Euro, you are our fifth largest export market in mainland Europe.
Italy is increasingly seen as a particularly attractive market for Irish companies with its highly developed infrastructure, large spend on R&D, its leadership in a wide variety of industries, like telecommunications, medical devices, banking, textiles, automotive and aerospace.
Today Ireland is one of the largest food exporters in the EU with total food exports last year of over €7 billion among them €380 million worth of livestock and meat products to Italy. And the tourism industry so important to both of us is benefiting from considerable two-way traffic. 2006 figures show that almost a quarter of a million (248,000) Italian visitors visited the Republic of Ireland, up one third on the previous year and having visited Italy at least twice a year and sometimes more over the past years, I have made my own contribution to the many thousands heading to Rome, Milan, The Tuscan Hills or the snow of the Aosta Valley.
The two Enterprise Ireland sectoral trade missions that are taking place today and tomorrow in the technology and medical sectors demonstrate the strong business opportunities in two key areas for Ireland and Italy. Outside of these two areas, the wide range of products and services that are traded between our two nations is considerable – pharmaceuticals, electronics, engineering, consumer products, food and natural resources and, more recently, internationally traded services - and the broad grouping of people present here tonight is evidence of this fact.
Also present are representatives of the newly established Milan based Irish Business Network, which was set up last November, to enable the Irish in business in Italy to network among each other to share business contacts and experiences. It is an important new resource complementing the many initiatives undertaken by Enterprise Ireland, the trade and technology board of the Irish Government, in actively supporting Irish companies to build market awareness and accelerate sales growth into Italy. More than three decades have passed since its office here in Milan was first set up and it has quite a remarkable story of achievement to tell. So if you want information about the benefits of trading with Ireland, Enterprise Ireland is the ready made guide to help you find your way as easily as possible and in as supportive an environment as possible.
The high calibre performance of Irish companies in recent decades has brought great pride as well as profit. They have been an indispensable part of a new narrative for Ireland which has been transformed from poverty to prosperity, from under achievement to stellar achievement in the space of two decades.
We are a most fortunate generation for we have the highest educated generation ever to inhabit the island and they have proven the value of education time and again by their inventiveness, creativity, their business courage and their cultural exuberance. What is more they are only at the very start of Ireland’s blossoming and we have much to look forward to as the genius of our people and our new citizens from across Europe works to sustain prosperity and help consolidate the peace which is taking hold in Northern Ireland.
I hope that my visit to Milan and our gathering this evening will make its own contribution to the store of shared memories and friendships which have helped Italy and Ireland become close friends, partners and citizens of a common European homeland with a shared vision to unite us. In this the Golden Jubilee of the Treaty of Rome it is worth being reminded that everything you do, every link you make between our two countries is building the Union its founders dreamt of – a place marked by stability, democracy, respect for the individual and underpinned by a formidable partnership which would never make the Irish any less Irish or the Italians any less Italian but would make the closest friends of their children and give them a shared future to be proud of.
Go n-éirí go geal libh ‘s go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.
Thank you.