Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024
409. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason the Irish trade office in Taiwan was previously closed; if there are plans to reopen such a trade office in Taiwan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56347/23]
View answerIDA Ireland, the agency responsible for attracting foreign direct investment to Ireland, actively manages the Taiwanese market from its Singapore office. IDA Ireland’s decision to close its Taiwan office on 31 December 2011 was solely based on business reasons. There have been no new IDA investment projects from Taiwan for several years despite active marketing programmes in the country.
IDA’s market experience indicates that the majority of Taiwanese companies are focussed on targeting the vast Chinese market and other markets in the Asia Pacific region. This means less emphasis on investment in other regions, such as Europe. That said, IDA is still very active in the Taiwanese market. IDA’s Singapore office actively manages the Taiwanese market as an integral element of the IDA’s ongoing market development plan for the ASEAN and Taiwan market.
In response to continuing trends identifying Singapore as the primary source of outbound FDI destined for Europe, IDA Ireland considers it prudent to maintain its on-the-ground market presence in Singapore. Market analysis shows that the vast majority of all ASEAN outward FDI is intra-Asia and circa 65% of all Europe outbound FDI from the region originates in Singapore, while Taiwan is a distant second.
In this context, there are no current plans to reopen an IDA office in Taipei and the market will continue to be served from Singapore.
