Paul Donnelly
Question:159. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to report on the work of the Enterprise Ireland office in Singapore since its establishment. [49300/23]
View answerTuesday, 14 November 2023
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Written answers
Enterprise Ireland’s (EI’s) Singapore office has been located within ‘Ireland House’ in the Ireland Embassy since 2000. The office supports EI client companies to achieve export growth by ensuring they are market-ready and have sufficient market intelligence on the Southeast Asia (SEA) region.
Asia will be a central driver of future world growth, with economic forecasts (IMF 2023) suggesting that as much as 70% of global growth in the coming years will come from the region. According to latest figures (2021), the total number of people living in the ten Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has reached 663.9 million, making ASEAN the third most populous economy in the world after China and India.
Singapore remains EI’s business hub for SEA and continues to support new and scaling companies to access opportunities within Singapore and other SEA markets. In recent years, EI has established representative offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2020) and Kuala Lumpur (2021) to support continued regional growth and business opportunities.
The EI team in Singapore consists of seven staff members focussing on sectors including Edutech, Financial Services and Fintech, High Tech Construction, Agritech, Life Sciences and Digital Health, Digital Technologies, IOT & Cybersecurity, Cleantech & Sustainability, Consumer Retail, and Aviation.
The Singapore office and their representative offices facilitate and broker introductions between EI client companies and key companies in the ASEAN region to achieve export growth. Market advisors directly support clients, and scaling and diversification in the region are assisted through one-to-one engagements between clients and advisors. In addition to facilitating introductions and B2B meetings, EI provides support on market validation, competitor intelligence, value proposition, channel strategy, sales processes and establishing a market presence. The Singapore and ASEAN market activity also includes notable trade events and inward Ministerial visits.
Enterprise Ireland will continue to focus on:
1. Driving scale through one-to-one client work within the key sectors of opportunity and clients who have scaling capabilities in the region.
2. Proactively seeking new market opportunities enabling clients to grow and diversify to new markets within ASEAN.
3. Assisting clients to build presences in ASEAN markets.
CSO data for ASEAN export and import values is illustrated in the table below.
|
ASEAN |
2019 |
2020 |
2022 |
|
Exports to market from Ireland (€ million) |
|||
|
Goods |
1,305 |
1,293 |
2,210 |
|
Imports to Ireland from market (€ million) |
|||
|
Goods |
2,412 |
3,988 |
3,636 |