The Taoiseach this morning begins a five-day visit to Lesotho and South Africa. It is designed to boost trade and increase the profile of Irish Aid programmes in the region.
Mr Ahern will meet the South African President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, and other political leaders during his visit and will host meetings between Irish companies and key South African business people.
The visit is intended to boost the State's profile in South Africa, which is seen as both a force for political stability throughout southern Africa and a potentially lucrative market which could provide a gateway to the region.
Representatives of 19 Irish companies and trade organisations will be on the trip. These include Anglo Irish Beef Processors, Fyffes plc, the Irish Dairy Board and Irish Life International.
Mr Ahern's trip comes instead of a trade visit which was being considered for the spring by the Tanaiste and Minister for Trade and Enterprise, Ms Harney. It is hoped the Taoiseach's decision to go will give the visit a higher profile.
Mr Ahern is accompanied by his partner, Ms Celia Larkin. She will attend functions with the Taoiseach as well as having separate engagements, including some in Soweto tomorrow. While trade and political dialogue will dominate the visit to South Africa, today's schedule in Lesotho concentrates on the efforts of Irish Aid in that state.
Mr Ahern today becomes the first Taoiseach to visit Irish Aid projects abroad, 25 years after Irish Aid was founded and in the first state in which the State's official aid programme operated.
He arrives in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, this morning, where he will call on King Letsie III at his palace. He will also meet Lesotho's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs before opening the offices of the Irish consulate. He is due to travel by helicopter to visit Irish Aid projects this afternoon.
Irish Aid, which operates as part of the Department of Foreign Affairs, spent £5.25 million in Lesotho last year. Its projects aim to build democratic institutions and tackle poverty in the politically-troubled state.
Lesotho, a small mountainous state, has a population of two million and an average annual income of just £450 per annum, compared to an average £2,100 in South Africa which borders it on all sides.
Since a disputed election result in 1998, Irish Aid has been funding projects to develop Lesotho's independent electoral commission, to build voter-education programmes and encourage pluralistic media. A new election is expected late this year or in early 2001.
Irish Aid projects in Lesotho to deal with poverty include funding rural water supply schemes, road and footbridge building, school construction, paying for accountancy students and entrepreneurial training. It is also involved in health projects, such as TB control and AIDS programmes.
Mr Ahern travels tomorrow to the South African capital, Pretoria, where he will meet the President, Mr Mbeki. He will also have talks with the Deputy President, Mr Jacob Zuma.
On Wednesday he will host a business breakfast in nearby Johannesburg. It will be attended by representatives of the 19 Irish businesses and organisations on the Irish delegation and South African business contacts.
On Wednesday evening Mr Ahern will deliver an address to the South African Institute for International Affairs in Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand. He is expected to speak on Northern Ireland.
Mr Ahern will spend Thursday and Friday in Cape Town, during which he will visit Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela spent much of his 27-year imprisonment between 1963 and 1990. It is now a national monument.
He will also visit a number of Irish Aid projects and attend a reception at the residence of the Irish Ambassador, Mr Hugh Swift, for the Irish community and friends of Ireland.