Irish firms are to travel on a business trip to Kazakhstan.
Enterprise Ireland is organising a trade mission to the former Soviet state, famously lampooned by comic character Borat, next month, and four companies have already signed up.
The Enterprise Ireland office in Moscow is now organising a five-day visit which will mainly focus on Almaty, the largest city.
The ninth largest country in the world, Kazakhstan is roughly the size of Western Europe. Its economy is growing steadily since independence in 1991 due to rich oil and gas resources. It also exports diamonds and is one of the world's biggest producers of grain.
Borat's hit film, Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstanoutraged government officials who were forced to launch a publicity campaign in the United States to undo the negative image of the country as an underdeveloped backwater.
Other Enterprise Ireland trade missions planned for 2007 are targeting Latvia, Croatia, Slovakia, Egypt, Jordan and Latvia.