Eurozone crisis will strengthen EU, Martin tells business leaders in Hong Kong

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin has told business leaders in Hong Kong that a stronger EU will emerge from the eurozone crisis.

Minister Martin is in China this week on a trade mission.

He told the Irish Chamber of Commerce there that the right lessons will be learned from the problems with Greece, Spain and Portugal.

And he said the Irish economy should return to some growth this year after some difficult and painful budget cuts of our own.

"The Government’s response to the economic crisis has been proactive and resolute." Minister Martin said.

"We have tackled vigorously the imbalance in our public finances, taking difficult but necessary decisions. We have introduced comprehensive reform of the banking sector and we are aggressively addressing the issue of competitiveness - unit labour costs, energy costs and prices are falling.

"Industrial production is up, consumer confidence is improving and we are confident that our repositioning through for example the renewed emphasis on innovation means that we will be in a position to benefit from the global recovery."