Each year my Department coordinates the organisation of a considerable number of Ministerial-led overseas Trade and Investment Missions, which also incorporate high-level meetings with Ministers and officials in the other country. These Missions involve an extensive range of meetings for participant Irish companies with the aim of developing contacts and/or finalising contracts/joint ventures with partner companies in those countries, developing an awareness of Ireland as a supplier of world-class goods and services, and promoting Ireland as an attractive location for Foreign Direct Investment opportunities in the highly competitive marketplace for global mobile investment. Schedules for the second half of this year have not yet been fully finalised, however details of known trips are set out below in tabular format, together with other official foreign trips which are to be conducted in connection with the work of the Competitiveness Council and the EU SME Envoy Group and involve exchanges of information by senior officials and Ministers on a range of topics relating to the work of my Department.
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Minister
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Date
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Location
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June
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Trade Mission – China
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June
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Trade Mission – South Korea
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September
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Trade Mission – Australia
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October
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Trade Mission – USA East Coast
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Richard Bruton, TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation
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November
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Trade Mission - USA
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May
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Competitiveness Council – Brussels
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June
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Trade Mission – Switzerland
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Seán Sherlock, TD, Minister for Research & Innovation
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October
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Science and Technology Ministers' Roundtable Meeting - Kyoto, Japan
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May
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Competitiveness Council and Research Council – Brussels, Belgium
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June
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EU SME Envoy Group – Madrid, Spain
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October
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Trade Mission – Turkey
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October
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EU SME Envoy Group – Naples, Italy
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John Perry, TD, Minister for Small Business
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Towards year end
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EU SME Envoy Group - Brussels, Belgium
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