Ireland's Prime Minister Brian Cowen Visits Washington, DC as Part of Multi-City Trade and Investment Mission to U.S.

Enterprise Ireland stages events to promote partnerships between U.S. and Ireland in public and private sectors

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Mar 16, 2010, 08:30 ET

WASHINGTON and DUBLIN, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a multi-city Trade and Investment Mission to the U.S., Ireland's Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, today will attend events in Washington, DC designed to promote economic partnerships between the U.S. and Ireland in the public and private sectors. The stop in Washington concludes the 2010 U.S. Trade and Investment Mission which featured an earlier visit by the Prime Minister to Silicon Valley. The Mission is organized by Enterprise Ireland, the state agency responsible for the development and promotion of Ireland's indigenous business sector.

Two forums will be hosted by Enterprise Ireland: The green building event will focus on sharing Irish green construction experience with opinion leaders and decision makers in the U.S. sustainable building materials movement, with the goal of forming economic partnerships to further promote green construction in the U.S. Participating Irish companies will discuss ways to leverage their experience in sustainable building materials and best practices to the benefit of the U.S. construction industry.

A Forum on Partnership for Growth in the Public Sector will focus on inspiring Irish company executives with ideas and strategies to bring added value to their existing partnerships with U.S. federal, state and local government entities. The event will feature companies already providing advanced technology to diverse government sectors like airport security and health and human services, as well as those with innovative new offerings. A panel of speakers will discuss ways to optimize public/private partnerships by bringing new levels of efficiency, innovation and entrepreneurship to the collaborations.

Commenting on the events, Prime Minister Cowen noted, "The U.S. is Ireland's largest trading partner, not just in terms of products shipped from Ireland to the U.S., but also for the number of Irish companies doing business in the U.S. Today, more than 82,000 American citizens are employed by 220 Irish companies operating in the U.S. in a variety of sectors, including technology, life sciences, international services and the manufacture of industrial and consumer products. Within these companies new models of international cooperation are occurring in the areas of trade and technology exchanges and there's a constant sharing of new ideas. Such partnerships offer win-win benefits to Ireland and the U.S. in terms of increased productivity and employment. We're delighted to see such momentum in spite of the global economic challenges we both face."

For more information on Enterprise Ireland, please visit www.enterprise-ireland.com or www.americas.enterprise-ireland.com

SOURCE Enterprise Ireland