DUBLIN, November 7 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian-Irish Intergovernmental Committee on Business Cooperation Development is the most important structure, which should raise the partnership between the two countries to a new level, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland Eamon Gilmore said in an interview with Itar-Tass in the run-up to his visit to Moscow.
“I believe that a key element of our economic relationship is the constant growth of trade and investment flows in both directions,” he stressed. “Bilateral trade (without services) in 2010 grew by 64 percent, compared to the previous year and amounted to 533 million euros. We have a good potential for the preservation of such high trade development tempos that will promote the growth of our economies.”
The diplomat noted that Russia is an attractive partner for Ireland and the Russian market is identified as a top priority for most Irish companies. “We intend to discuss cooperation in such fields as education, agriculture, transport, energy, information and communication technologies, as well as the development of small and medium-sized businesses. These are the sphere with already established considerable cooperation and there is a big potential for strengthening the mutually beneficial partnership,” he added.
Gilmore also touched upon issues of Ireland-Russia interaction. “As a signal of our intent to develop bilateral relations with Russia, I intend to sign a declaration of partnership for modernisation,” the Irish diplomacy head said. “I will invite the leadership of the Skolkovo project to visit Ireland, so that they could look from the inside how we managed to become a hub of innovation and research.”