The Taoiseach plans to set up a strategy group next week to develop trade with the Far East. The group's focus will be on China and it will be instructed to report within three months on what new resources should be devoted to the region to encourage Irish exports.
Mr Ahern disclosed his plan in an interview with The Irish Times at the end of his five-day tour of China, during which he visited the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. He left Hong Kong for Dublin last night.
In Hong Kong, the Taoiseach met the chief executive of the former British colony, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, and later the leader of the Democratic Party, Mr Martin Lee. He also addressed a lunch organised by the Irish Business Forum, at which he and Mr Tom Kitt, the Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, were guests of honour.
Mr Ahern's partner, Ms Celia Larkin, who followed a separate programme during the trip, visited a Hong Kong employment exchange yesterday and a job placement centre.
Asked if there was not a need to allocate more resources to the minimal Irish representation in China, Mr Ahern said that as Ireland exported 80 per cent of its produce and China represented 22 per cent of the world's population, more resources were necessary.
"Based on the present approach, we're not going to penetrate the market as it is," he said, adding that he had been anxious to see China for himself and talk to business people. He said the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, had already made it clear he was open to devoting more resources to the region.
Mr Ahern said he would involve all agencies with an export orientation, including those on the food side. "I have said we should have this work started and finished by Christmas and decide on the requirements and the specific supports that we need, including the additional resources."
The reality was that the State was trying to do such things as penetrate the Shanghai market from Singapore. "We can't do that, so we have to get all our agencies together, including Foreign Affairs, but I would rather dominate it from the trade side."
He added that they would have to plan for a four- to five-year period as "it is not an area of the world where you can just spend a year and be successful".
With fears of a global recession sending stock prices tumbling in the region this week, Mr Ahern recalled that the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, had predicted to him two weeks ago that more than 50 per cent of the world would be in recession at the end of 1998.
Asked if Ireland's reliance on high-technology exports could cause problems, he said countries still needed to improve efficiency by using technology. However, it now looks as if the State was heading to at least a partial "downturn" and "the reality is that there will be a slowdown in high-tech".
"So, we will drop back somewhat because the world is going to drop back but, hopefully, that won't be too serious."
He believed the fact that Ireland had not just developed home computers but had developed high-technology, medical research and educational equipment would protect growth.
He acknowledged that the State's growth rate, which could be 10 per cent this year, might drop back a few percentage points. "If we can stay five or more (points) in the medium-term, I think we're doing well."
He said all the Irish companies on the visit had identified good opportunities. China was developing and presented opportunities in the mobile telephone business, home computers and software.
On human rights, Mr Ahern said Chinese business people had told him that as long as they stayed away from politics they could continue to thrive. "Looking at Beijing, looking at Shanghai, listening to their leaders, watching the people on the street, it is not a place that you could consider that draconian."
However, China had a long way to go on human rights and he had been distracted during the welcoming ceremony in Tiananmen Square on Monday by his recollection of what happened there when the pro-democracy movement was crushed in 1989.
He felt the visit by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, was a step in the right direction but he would not put it any more than that. The fact that people were given long stretches in prison for nothing and that there was a high rate of execution and no semblance of free democracy "clearly means that nobody in Europe can walk away from the issue".