Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today begins a five-day visit to South Africa and Tanzania, which will focus on developing trade links and offering a greater profile for Irish overseas development aid.
Mr Ahern, who is accompanied by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin and the Minister of State for Overseas Development Michael Kitt, arrived in Cape Town last night.
Representatives from over 50 companies, including Adaptive Mobile, Bannow Exports and others, attended a reception in the city last night hosted by Enterprise Ireland and Mr Martin.
Bord Bia's chief executive, Aidan Cotter, has also travelled to South Africa to boost meat exports, following the South African government's decision to allow the importation of Irish beef.
Today, Mr Ahern will visit the Niall Mellon Township Trust, which has built large numbers of homes for poor families on the outskirts of Cape Town with the help of hundreds of Irish craftsmen.
Later, he will launch an Aids' orphans project, funded by €8 million worth of help from UPC - the owners of NTL and Chorus - and attend a reception hosted by Ireland's ambassador to South Africa, Colm Wrafter. Later this evening, the Taoiseach will travel to Johannesburg where he will meet with South African president Thabo Mbeki, who is struggling with a major corruption crisis following the resignation of the country's police chief.
Mr Ahern will travel to Leratong Hospice in Atteridgeville where he will meet Belfast-born Passionist priest, Fr Kieran Creagh.
Fr Creagh has returned to work at the hospice even though he was shot by intruders last year.
Later on Tuesday, Mr Ahern will address an Enterprise Ireland lunch and visit a seminar organised by Bord Bia for South African meat importers.
On Wednesday, Mr Ahern will depart for Dar es Salaam in Tanzania for a two-day visit.
He is due to meet the country's president, Jakaya Kikwete, and the prime minister, Edward Lowassa.
Meanwhile, responding to Trócaire's call for the Taoiseach to raise the issue of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe with President Mbeki on Tuesday, Mr Ahern's spokesman said Mr Ahern had frequently made his views known.
"The Taoiseach attended the EU/Africa summit where the EU leaders there, with one voice, made clear their concerns about the situation in that country," the spokesman told The Irish Times.
