Irish minister promotes cooperation with Dalian

By Zhu Chengpei and Zhang Xiaomin (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-10-15 15:17

More Irish software companies will consider Dalian as a location and base to do business, a senior official from Ireland said Wednesday in Dalian, northeast 皇冠体育app's Liaoning province.

Billy Kelleher, Ireland鈥檚 Minister for International Trade, was attending the opening ceremony of Avego鈥檚 Dalian office in the Dalian Ascendas IT Park.

鈥淒alian is a home of software. And Ireland is probably one of the world鈥檚 leaders in software. Obviously companies will be looking to locate in strategic areas like Dalian,鈥� said Kelleher.

The infrastructure, the growing software sector, and the great government support of the beautiful city make it a good place for the Irish software companies, according to the minister. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be encouraging Irish companies to look toward Dalian and encouraging Chinese companies to look towards Ireland,鈥� he said.

Avego, which provides software and hardware systems for improving transportation efficiency, is the first Irish IT company to set up shop in Dalian.

鈥淥ur new ventures in Dalian would not be possible if it wasn鈥檛 for the technology-friendly business atmosphere and talented labor pool that the Dalian government has developed for foreign invested businesses,鈥� said Sean O'Sullivan, Managing Director of Avego Ltd.

The Dalian office now has 15 engineers and support staff. It will provide Avego's Shared Transport and Futurefleet solutions for the Chinese, Japanese and Korean markets, as well as exporting 皇冠体育app-manufactured Avego hardware solutions to the worldwide market, according to O'Sullivan.

鈥淎s our business develops, our current location will allow us to quickly expand to 45 employees,鈥� he said.

鈥淥ur engineering staff in Ireland, 皇冠体育app and the United States are combining efforts to produce products that will improve transport networks worldwide,鈥� he added.

Avego is the first Irish company to establish a presence in Dalian, said Declan Kelleher, Ambassador of Ireland to 皇冠体育app.

According to the ambassador, nearly 100 Irish companies have established their presence in 皇冠体育app.

鈥淲e hope to see more and more cooperation between Ireland and Dalian,鈥� he said.