A slightly delayed Taoiseach will talk business and education with China's leaders
TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen is to arrive in Beijing tonight to join an Irish trade delegation. He was originally due to arrive in China last Monday and spend a few days in Shanghai before travelling on to the capital.
However, the political rows which developed after the Budget, particularly on the question of medical cards for the over-70s, caused the Taoiseach to postpone his departure.
His place at the head of the delegation in Shanghai was taken in the interim by Minister for Education and Science Batt O'Keeffe.
Having rested after the lengthy aircraft journey to Beijing, Mr Cowen will begin his round of engagements tomorrow morning with an address to 500 guests at an Enterprise Ireland business breakfast in the ballroom of a city hotel.
Mr O'Keeffe and Minister of State for Trade and Commerce John McGuinness will also be in attendance, and Mr Cowen is expected to review the economic situation in Ireland in the aftermath of the Budget and in the context of an international downturn.
His message is expected to be that Ireland is "open for business" and he is likely to outline the State's attractions and incentives for a would-be investor.
He is also likely to highlight the quality of Ireland's educational facilities, as well as the advantages of using our financial services sector.
Later tomorrow morning he will hold a meeting with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, who himself visited Ireland in 2004.
The meeting takes place in the Great Hall of the People, and Mr Cowen is expected to hold a brief news conference there afterwards with another news conference perhaps later in the day.
The Taoiseach will attend a lunch hosted by Ireland's Ambassador to China, Declan Kelleher, followed by a Bord Bia event aimed at promoting sales of Irish beef in China.
Later in the afternoon, he gives an address at China Foreign Affairs University, where students are trained for the diplomatic service, international business and law.
The speech is likely to look at Ireland's role in Europe and the wider world and may make some reference to the Lisbon treaty referendum.
On Friday and Saturday, Mr Cowen is due to attend the Seventh Summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), which was founded in 1996 to promote dialogue and co-operation between EU member-states, the European Commission and Asian countries.
The Taoiseach is due to fly back to Ireland on Sunday.
Mr O'Keeffe said at Shanghai University yesterday that Ireland now had a higher number of students from China than from any other non-EU country except the US.
"Chinese students are studying in every sector, with the largest numbers in business administration, information and communications technologies, science, engineering, hospitality and tourism, law and medicine and the humanities," he said.
Highlighting the growing links between Shanghai University and University College Cork, the Minister said: "I am especially delighted that these two universities, both with proud traditions of providing high-quality education for our young people, are now partner institutions in two important areas.
"Firstly, there is the student exchange programme, through which graduates from Shanghai University have progressed to UCC for master's programmes, and students from UCC have come to study here, at Shanghai University.
"Secondly, an agreement had been signed last November to establish a branch of the Confucius Institute at UCC. This is a worldwide programme, which promotes the learning and appreciation of Chinese language, culture and history abroad. Shanghai and Cork have also been sister-cities since 2005.
"I am happy to recommend Ireland as a first-rate place of study for Chinese students for many reasons," the Minister said.
"We offer an excellent English-speaking education system and close linkages between the worlds of education and employment."
