Visit to China
The Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, T.D., today (Sunday, 12th September, 1998) departs for a week-long official visit to China which will include Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. This is the first official visit by an Irish Taoiseach to China and the first of six visits this Autumn by EU Prime Ministers and the President of the European Commission.
During this visit, the Taoiseach will be accompanied by the Minister for International Trade, Mr Tom Kitt, T.D., and senior officials from the Department of the Taoiseach, Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. A trade delegation, comprising of senior executives of 26 leading Irish companies from the food, information technology, aviation and aviation services sectors who are already active in the Chinese market, will also accompany the Taoiseach.
Commencing on Monday, the Taoiseach will spend over two days in Beijing where he will meet with President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji and address the prestigious Foreign Affairs College. It is expected that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Mary Robinson, will meet the Taoiseach during his stay in Beijing. From there, he will travel to Shanghai to meet with the Mayor of Shanghai, Mr. Xu Kuangdi, business leaders and the local Irish community. The Taoiseach will spend the final day of his visit in Hong Kong where he will meet with the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Government, Mr. Tung Cheehwa, and opposition members of the Legislative Council.
The Taoiseach states that "this visit will consolidate the already good bilateral relations between China and Ireland and lay the foundations for even closer relations in the future. Both China and Ireland are nations with rich histories and diverse cultures, yet we share the same goals of seeking greater prosperity for our peoples. I hope that my visit will allow us to achieve a greater understanding of each other and help to build strong and long-term trade links with China and therefore pave the way for greater parity in our trade relationship. Last year we imported £316 million of merchandise from China (excluding Hong Kong) while we only exported £34 million worth of goods to that country. The potential to improve the balance of trade in our favour is clearly enormous!"
The Taoiseach will be returning to Dublin on Saturday, 19 September.