Irish ‘way behind the game’ in Asian markets

Irish companies are “way behind the game” in terms of tapping into the enormous Asian market, partly due to a traditional mindset that’s holding back expansion.

Most Irish businesses look to traditional markets such as the UK, US and a few major European economies to expand their business but far fewer eye the largely untapped Asian market to grow their sales, according to a leading expert.

The value of trade between Irish firms and their Asian counterparts remains very modest at €1.4bn despite recent improvements, according to Martin Murray, executive director of the independent institute, Asia Matters.

“Anyone who’s not looking to China and Asia, you’re not [running] a global business, you’re not even thinking of a global business.

"Whatever you’re trying to succeed at, if you’re scaling up you’ve got to look at Asia,” Mr Murray said speaking at the Startup Ireland Vision 2020 Forum in Cork County Hall.

“One of our problems in Ireland is our mindsets are too traditional. They’re too set on what we regard as the safe EU markets, primarily the UK and a bit of Germany, depending on sectors and product niches, and America. Part of that is history, part of that is the Anglo thing; everyone speaks English.”

With a third of the world’s GDP and two-thirds of its population located in Asia, the opportunities in areas such as the environmental and food sectors are huge.

Some 700m Chinese people drink contaminated water everyday but every such crisis presents huge opportunities, in this instance for Irish companies operating in the cleantech and environmental space.

Similarly, Indonesia, a country of 250m inhabitants, is a country on the move with 129 new airports set to be built by 2030 and $800bn worth of products purchased by its National Public Procurement Agency in recent years.

“They have an e-procurement system with 12,000 products which rotate every month. To my understanding there’s not one Irish company involved in that. There are huge opportunities,” Mr Murray said.

Looking towards Asian markets from the very beginning should be a no-brainer, he added.