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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 China's Liaoning province.

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

“Dalian is a home of software. And Ireland is probably one of the world’s leaders in software. Obviously companies will be looking to locate in strategic areas like Dalian,” 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. “We’ll be encouraging Irish companies to look toward Dalian and encouraging Chinese companies to look towards Ireland,” 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.

“Our new ventures in Dalian would not be possible if it wasn’t for the technology-friendly business atmosphere and talented labor pool that the Dalian government has developed for foreign invested businesses,” 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 China-manufactured Avego hardware solutions to the worldwide market, according to O'Sullivan.

“As our business develops, our current location will allow us to quickly expand to 45 employees,” he said.

“Our engineering staff in Ireland, China and the United States are combining efforts to produce products that will improve transport networks worldwide,” he added.

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

According to the ambassador, nearly 100 Irish companies have established their presence in China.

“We hope to see more and more cooperation between Ireland and Dalian,” he said.