Minister Costello announced that the Irish Trade mission's main focus will be trading with South Africa in three sectors namely finance, telecommunications and education.
The 37 Irish-owned companies involved in this mission have already traded € 1.2 billion between South Africa and Ireland, creating 13,000 jobs. Costello described the trade mission as very important in terms of deepening Ireland's trade and economic ties in the region, as well as supporting the aims of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Africa Strategy.
Fred Klinkenberg, country manager in Johannesburg for Enterprise Ireland, announced that Ireland is open for business. Enterprise Ireland is a national and global organisation in partnership with Irish enterprises to assist in exporting sales on global markets.
This partnership will enable local and international businesses to connect and access business intelligence allowing for international trade by assisting South African businesses to trade with Irish companies. Companies around the world that only allow for vacuumed business prospects are missing out in the international market, as the recession is upon every organisation on a global scale, therefore it is time to open guarded doors and share knowledge with each other by increasing innovation and problem solving.
Networking encourages knowledge and expertise sharing from different perspectives encouraging creative thinking and learning opportunities. Andrew Woods - Chairman of the Cape Town Chapter of Business Ireland Southern Africa, a voluntary organisation under the auspices of the Irish Ambassador - H.E. Brendan McMahon, encouraged associates to become members by filling out an application on their website www.businessireland.co.za.
South Africans as well as Irish business practitioners are welcome to use the website as an information portal and encouraged to join their meetings and networking functions. The Irish Ambassador supports the networking website encouraging communication between fellow Irish traders looking to open business opportunities in South Africa.
Enterprise Ireland's South African office is located in Illovo, Johannesburg. Fred Klinkenberg can be contacted on +2711 550 5440 or visit the website at www.enterprise-ireland.com for useful information on trading and exporting.
