NEW CONTRACTS and export sales in Japan valued at €46 million, as well as 150 new jobs in Japanese companies with offices in Cork and Dublin, were announced in Tokyo yesterday.
The announcements were made by the Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who is leading a trade mission of over 70 Irish companies during his five-day official visit to Japan.
The Industrial Development Agency (IDA) confirmed that 100 new jobs will be created over the next three years by Trend, which provides internet content security, in its existing facility in Cork, while Gala, an online community company, will be expanding its European headquarters in the Digital Hub with the creation of 50 jobs.
Three RD investments in Ireland were also unveiled by the IDA: in automotive technology from Alps Electric, imaging techniques from Shimadzu and a combined investment from Sony, Toshiba and IBM researching the Cell Broadband Engine.
Enterprise Ireland (EI) also announced that a number of Irish companies had signed new partnership contracts or won new export sales. They were Glen Dimplex; Parc Aviation; pharmaceutical company Eirgen; upholstery manufacturer Botany Weaving; Aviation Services and Direct Personnel.
However, EI’s chief executive Frank Ryan said that the new investment could only be regarded as a starting point and signalled that Japan was a very underdeveloped market from an Irish perspective. He said that Japan was the second biggest market in the world, but only accounted for 1 per cent, or €90 million of Ireland’s indigenous exports.
“There is a recession in Japan but it is still an immensely rich society and there are great opportunities for Irish companies here. There are currently 105 Irish companies exporting into Japan and we want to expand on that substantially over the next two to three years.”
Mr Ryan added that the lack of progress in the past could be attributed largely to cultural differences.
“Japanese business people believe you when you have been working with them for 18-24 months and can show you have genuine commitment to make Asia a priority.”
He said that the two sectors where EI would concentrate a lot of its efforts were environmental clean technology and life sciences.
“We have approximately 185 Irish companies in these two areas. These two sectors are not in recession. They are in rapid growth and we intend to get as much behind them as possible.”
One of the companies with a new contract, Botany Weaving, will provide the fabric for Nippon Airlines’s new fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
The company, based in the Coombe in Dublin, was founded in 1934 to make ladies apparel. It has since diversified into making uniform fabric for the Garda Síochána, An Post and the Air Crops as well as making seat fabric and carpets for aviation.
Read Harry McGee's blog from Japan at http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/politics
