Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s four-day trip to China which began yesterday comes hard on the heels of the Chinese vice premier Xi Jinping’s visit to Ireland last month and provides an excellent opportunity to consolidate good relations between the two states. On any reading, China’s economic strength will continue to make it an indispensable partner for such an open economy as Ireland’s. Annual bilateral trade already tops €5 billion, a figure which will certainly grow as a result of these two visits, and is a positive signal about Ireland’s future prospects for growth and employment.
Mr Kenny’s meetings with premier Wen Jiabao, Mr Xi and other leaders comes at a time of major change in Chinese politics. The top leadership group is being replaced later this year and the just finished National Peoples’ Congress registered some dramatic shifts of personnel and policy. This appears to represent a victory for pragmatic reformers over traditional left wingers in the Communist Party, a development which should intensify China’s path towards a more sophisticated market economy. That suits its international trading partners such as Ireland.
Mr Kenny is accompanied by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton and a large delegation of business people and academics. They too will have a chance to consolidate connections made with Mr Xi’s large commercial touring party in Dublin. The range of sectors represented is impressive, from financial services, tourism, education, communications to agriculture and food. Already some 130 Irish companies are based in China, Irish exports to China reached €3.3 billion in 2011 (up 6 per cent on the previous year) and 90 companies are involved in this delegation. They are aware of how important it is to establish personal relations with Chinese partners and all the indications are that the two peoples can get on very well once they get to know each other.
Mr Xi took a particular interest in Irish agriculture and our food industries. He was impressed by the strength of farming co-operatives and is convinced they may be a model for modernising Chinese agriculture. At a time when this sector of the Irish economy is enjoying buoyant output and international demand there is a special opportunity to find new markets which can sustain good indigenous-based employment. Despite the vast differences in scale between the two countries it seems there is plenty in common for mutual benefit if the opportunities are taken.