It was timely that the announcement of this year's Asia Pacific Irish Business Forum, which takes place in Shanghai in October, should be announced in Croke Park on the day after Kerry beat Kildare in the GAA Championship in the same venue.

Kerry-based Fexco is the main sponsor of the annual event, the biggest gathering of Irish businesspeople in Asia every year, which takes place in the Wyndham Hotel, in Shanghai's Pudong district on October 23rd, the Friday before the Asian Gaelic Games.

Fexco is keen to sponsor the games and the APIBF because Asia is a big growth area for the company, given the large inbound tourism market and growth in inter-Asia travel.

John Kiely runs Fexco's DCC service, which allows consumers to pay for products and services with credit cards in their home currency when shopping abroad, in Asia Pacific. It's also a big growth area for Fexco's Multi-Currency Pricing (MCP) solution, which allows consumers to select their home currency when shopping online.

"Longer term we see the continued deregulation of payments in China and the emergence of large economies such as the Philippines and Indonesia as presenting tremendous opportunities for a knowledge and services centred business such as Fexco," said Kiely.

Paraic McGrath, vice-chairman of the GAA's Asian County Board and the new development director for CRH in SE Asia, who is a key organiser of the APIBF, says it will follow on from now-president Xi Jinping's visit to Croke Park two years ago.

"Since then there has been huge progress made in business between Ireland and China and we look forward to hearing an update at the APIBF and making it a foundation for more expansion," said McGrath.