Chinese investment is still being actively welcomed in Ireland, the head of a major business organisation said, even as the wider European Union adopts a more cautious attitude and Dublin walks a tightrope to maintain ties with both the US and China amid a wide-ranging rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.
“We’re firmly open for business within the EU rules, that is an unambiguous position,” Mary Rose Burke, CEO of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, told the Post in an interview last week.
“When we already have successful investors into Ireland, when we have Irish businesses investing in China, I don’t see anything that will completely upend that or stop it from being attractive for businesses to evaluate opportunities both ways.”
Chinese investment in Ireland has risen sharply in recent years, even as Beijing’s trade relations with both the EU and the United States have worsened.
Burke said IDA Ireland, an autonomous statutory body that promotes foreign direct investment, had around 40 Chinese client companies that were investing across the Irish economy, including pillar industries such as technology and pharmaceuticals.
