Shannon ‘ideal gateway to access EU’

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, China’s foreign minister came to Ireland to study what was then known as the Shannon Free Zone.

Jiang Zemin later became president. His experience in Shannon, meanwhile, helped in the formation of several special economic zones that subsequently fuelled the country’s spectacular economic growth. Now, in a curious twist of fate, it is the Shannon Free Zone that wants something from China. It is not advice or a suitable model that it seeks, however, it is business.

The free zone, or at least, Shannon Development - the State agency that runs the 243-hectare business park - wants to tap into the vast trade potential that the Chinese economy offers.