A week-long Enterprise Ireland business promotion visit to Australia is expected to result in the signing of contracts worth €30 million for Irish companies.

The visit, which was led by the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, included 20 Irish companies seeking new business opportunities in the Australian economy. At the end of the trip yesterday, the Minister said that it had been very successful.

"There are now 50 Irish companies with offices in Australia, up from 19 in 2001, and they cover a wide range of sectors including information technology, telecoms and financial services software, e-learning, engineering and agribusiness, manufacturing services and consumer products," the Minister said.

The companies on the trip include the banking and insurance software group Fineos, software development company ValidSoft, mobile network engineering group Vilicom and forklift producers Combilift.

Fineos has forged a relationship with CommInsure, the insurance arm of the Commonwealth Bank which uses the company's solution.

Validsoft is working with one of Australia's leading investment banks and other clients to provide two-factor authentication security solutions.

Combilift from County Monaghan exports its products to 30 countries including Australia and has won new distribution deals during this trip.

Frank Ryan, chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, said that exports from Ireland to Australia will exceed €700 million this year.

The mission formed part of a Government-backed strategy to assist Irish businesses to expand into Australia, Japan, South Korea, China and India. The Taoiseach will lead a trade delegation to India in the new year. Irish exports to these countries increased by 11 per cent last year, according to Enterprise Ireland.

The strategy is aimed at generating €3 billion in new export sales by 2007 and a substantial increase in the numbers of Irish firms performing research and development by 2010.