Minister Calleary Leads Trade Visit of 40 Irish Companies to Spain

17 June 2010

Minister for Labour Affairs and Public Service Transformation Mr. Dara Calleary T.D. is today leading an Enterprise Ireland trade visit of 40Irish companies to Madrid to help promote Irish products and services in the Spanish market and further drive Irish exports to Spain.

Speaking in Madrid Minister Calleary said:

“Spain is Ireland’s fifth largest trading partner in the EU with total Irish exports to Spain of €3.48bn in 2009. There is significant potential to accelerate the level of trade between Ireland and Spain in key sectors such as information and communications technologies for financial services, telecoms and healthcare, and engineering services and renewable energy technologies for the power generation and distribution sector.

“The future success of the Irish economy will be influenced by many factors - not least of which is growing our exports.

‘Spain is one of our most important markets and over the coming days I will provide support to these companies at their meetings which will include leading Spanish companies, Telefonica, Grupo Santander, Indra and Iberdrola.

“Irish companies participating on this visit are keen to increase their sales in Spain and there is clearly scope for them and Spanish companies to join forces in opening up new, international market opportunities for both.

“These Spanish companies have a considerable international footprint, particularly in Latin America, but also in Europe the UK and North America. Irish companies have the opportunity therefore not only to develop new business in Spain, but also in these markets where the Spanish multinationals have a significant presence.”

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For further information contact:

Ciara O’Mahony, Press Officer, Enterprise Ireland 01 7272284

Roisin McCann, Press Officer, Dept. Enterprise, Trade and Innovation

01 6312222