Interview: Irish deputy prime minister says China visit to highlight strategic partnership

DUBLIN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Eamon Gilmore said Friday his upcoming China visit will highlight strategic partnership between the two countries.

"It is true that the relationship between Ireland and China has never been better," Gilmore said in an interview with Xinhua.

According to Gilmore, last year Ireland hosted the visit of then Vice President Xi Jinping and following on from that there was a visit by Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny to China.

"We have now signed a strategic partnership agreement between Ireland and China which covers a comprehensive range of the relationships between Ireland and China: political, governmental, business, scientific, educational, right across the range of the relationship," the minister said.

"In the period since then, seven Irish ministers have visited China, 10 Chinese ministers have visited Ireland, we have had 20 high level official visits between Ireland and China over that period of time and they have all discussed a range of areas where the relationship between the two countries can be strengthened," he said.

He listed the areas which have the potential for mutually beneficial cooperation in the future, saying that these areas shall be on the business side, the agricultural and food industries, in financial services, in energy, in education, in scientific research and innovation, and on cultural and people-to-people relations.

Gilmore will make a China trip from July 28 to August 3. This is his first official visit to China in his capacity as Ireland's minister for foreign affairs and trade.

"I'm delighted to have this opportunity of visiting China. It will strengthen the relationship between Ireland and China which is very important to us and it will also enable us to have discussions with representatives of government, with political leaders, with business leaders with a view to strengthening the trade and investment between Ireland and China," he said.

In Ireland's new Asian strategy, China is regarded as a primary partner, according to Gilmore. He stressed the importance for Ireland to further develop its relationship with China particularly during this time of economic stress.

"China is a priority market for Ireland. The trade between Ireland and China now is now about 8 billion euros per year. It is a very strong level of trade and we want to see that developed and grow," he said.

"We already have a number of Chinese businesses who have located and established businesses here in Ireland and of course there are a number of Irish companies who are doing business in China and with China. China is a very important market for Ireland. I think there are big opportunities for investment by Chinese companies in Ireland and there are big opportunities for investment by Irish companies with the growth of trade in China."

On Ireland's much attractiveness than its European counterparts for Chinese investors, he said there are a number of advantages that Ireland has for investment.

"First of all, Ireland is the only English speaking country in the euro zone. As we know English is now in effect becoming increasingly the language of international business," he said

"We have a young very versatile population very well educated. We have an openness in Ireland to working with people from many countries, we have a historic experience of inward investment in Ireland and we are a strong trading economy. We have in place a number of government agencies who know how to work with companies who are investing in Ireland," he added.

Gilmore said he has seen many opportunities for Chinese businesses to invest in Ireland.

"We have already seen a very strong growth in a number of areas. We have seen growth in agriculture and food, pharmaceuticals are very strong we are also seeing a growth in tourism and we are seeing a growth in education.

"Certainly on the infrastructure side, Ireland's infrastructure has improved very significantly over the past number of decades but clearly there is an opportunity for growth in that area and I think for a collaboration between Chinese companies and Irish companies, working on infrastructure projects whether they're infrastructure projects in Ireland or indeed in third countries." he said.

Gilmore said the world economy benefits from China's economic growth over the past number of years.

"The level of economic growth in China and the increase in demand from China has contributed enormously to economic stability globally, and of course China has contributed very significantly to the stabilization of the euro in Europe," he said.

There have been talks of plans to introduce Mandarin as a second language in Irish schools. "We are already making progress on this," he said.

"We have already introduced Mandarin as a subject in the transition year. This is the year between the junior certificate cycle in our second level schools and the leaving certificate cycle," he added.

Gilmore said there is already arrangement for 45 hours of teaching in mandarin in the country's junior certificate cycle.

"We are currently reforming the junior certificate cycle, this is the education at second level between normally the age of 12 and about 15 or 16, and we intend to make mandarin part of that reform. We see that in the course of time mandarin will be a subject for the leaving certificate, which is the point at which people leave the second level school system," he said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-07/26/c_132577808.htm