Hope Ireland can be a gateway for India to EU: Simon Coveney | Latest News India

New Delhi: As countries and large multinationals look to reshape their supply chains amid growing geopolitical uncertainty, India is seen as a “safer bet” for reliance and predictability in crucial areas ranging from semiconductors to food security, Ireland’s trade minister Simon Coveney said on Thursday.

India’s voice is “listened to and heard” in the context of the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the Israel-Hamas war since it is perceived as a global superpower in terms of its economic and military heft and also from a diplomatic point of view, Coveney said in an exclusive interview.

You are in India as part of the annual St Patrick’s Day programme to publicise Ireland. Are there any specific areas you are focusing on to drive trade and investments with India?

First of all, in the build-up to Saint Patrick’s Day, which is Ireland’s National Day, when Irish government ministers travel to different parts of the world to connect with Irish communities and to build new relationships in parts of the world, it’s not a coincidence that the minister for trade, which is me, has decided to prioritise India this year. We think the opportunities for Irish-Indian partnership are very significant in the years to come. Today, we have a trade relationship that’s worth about €10 billion a year, between €7 billion and €8 billion of that is services, where Ireland is selling slightly more services to India than India is selling to Ireland. And then on goods, India has quite a strong trade surplus with Ireland, but we also sell some goods in here too. So, it’s already quite a strong base, but we think we could increase that figure very significantly in a relatively short period of time.

If you look at what’s happening in this enormous economy, it’s digitalising, it’s moving into areas where I think Ireland has expertise and proven success. If you look at the Irish economy today, it’s very driven by multinationals, and a very diverse workforce, one in five people working in Ireland were not born in Ireland. An increasing number of Indian nationals are working and living in Ireland now, about 91,000. We have 10,000 Indian students in Ireland this year, which is the highest. ever. We’re seeing a lot more interaction and I think we’re seeing multinationals with a footprint in both India and Ireland starting to trade with each other and we’re seeing skills moving between both economies. A lot of Indian people may look at Ireland and see a small European country, but from an economic and trading perspective, Ireland is much, much bigger than its population would suggest. The trade figures for Ireland now are $1 trillion a year in terms of goods and services being traded in and out of Ireland. That’s a significant enough figure, even by Indian standards, and that’s because of the scale of some of the multinationals in Ireland and the increasing number of Irish-owned multinationals. If you look at areas like cyber-security, artificial intelligence, new payment platforms, and the fintech industry in Ireland, the cluster of companies in Ireland is global and is now starting to work with some of the large companies in India as well. This week, we’ve met Wipro, Infosys, and the Tata Group. Tata Consultancy Services has quite a big presence in Ireland and looking to partner more with Irish companies in specific skill set areas where we think we have something to offer.

In the realm of fintech, India has come up with a host of digital services. Would there be any interest in Ireland in partnering with India in this area?

First of all, can I say I am hugely impressed by what India has done in relation to payment systems and the financial technology around that. Even if you walk through the streets of huge cities like Mumbai, all of the street traders there, it’s a cashless economy. Everybody’s doing commerce on their phones, simply scanning codes. It’s a really impressive change in terms of how digital-based trading platforms are being applied here in everyday life. We’re doing a lot of that in Ireland as well. We’ve done it slightly differently, but we do think [in] that sector, one, it’s very interesting for Irish companies to learn from what’s happening here. But I think we also have applications that can be very useful here. You take an Irish company like TransferMate for example, they’re one of the world’s largest facilitators of remittance coming back into countries. It’s a very cheap, safe way to transfer money on a regular basis. That kind of technology, we think, will be of real interest here and they’re already getting a lot of traction in terms of potential partnerships and there are lots of other Irish companies like that.

India has focused in recent years on opening up new opportunities for its professionals and students. Are you looking at ways to make it easier for Indian students to stay on and work in Ireland?

A lot of Indian students that come to Ireland do stay on and work and there is a visa facilitation for students to stay on and work for a certain period of time. We also have a work permit system in Ireland, which is not difficult to access. Last year, for example, as minister for enterprise, I signed off on 31,000 work permits for people with skills from all over the world outside of the European Union (EU) to come to Ireland and work. We also saw about 25,000 people within the EU coming to Ireland to work. So, it’s a strong, growing and young economy. In terms of the workforce, Ireland is the youngest population in the EU, and probably the fastest-growing population in the EU. It has the highest number of graduates linked to STEM-based subjects and technology-based subjects in the EU. When you think about what’s happening there, there are parallels here in India as well in quite a number of Indian cities that are really driving economies through technology and digitalisation and it’s happening very quickly. I think there is an opportunity for skilled Indian graduates to come to Ireland and to be part of that growth story, working for multinationals and Irish companies, and undoubtedly you’re seeing Indian students coming to Ireland and studying technology-based courses now an awful lot more. Previously, it may have been sort of social studies, whereas now it’s very much moving into the space of cybersecurity, writing code and a whole range of ICT-linked courses in our universities and that’s a good thing. Virtually all of our universities now would have an active programme to invite and manage quite large numbers of Indian students, which we think is a good thing because we see inward migration and diversity of workforce and student population in Ireland as complementing the reality that Ireland is probably the most globalised economy in the EU today. We’re one of the few countries in the EU that actually sees inward migration as a positive thing in terms of economic development and connections with other parts of the world. What we’re starting to see now is the benefit of that here in India, where you have an Indian population that has been to Ireland, that have studied there, that have worked there, that have come back here and are now in senior management positions in companies, but they understand and trust Ireland and they’re opening their doors to Irish companies and we think that’s a big opportunity.

Ireland launched its upgraded Asia Pacific policy last year. How do you think Ireland, and more broadly Europe, can work with India in this region, especially when there are concerns about supply chains, rule of law and problems with China?

The first thing I’d like to say is that I don’t think Ireland has done enough with India in recent years, I don’t think it’s been as high a priority as it should have been. I think that’s being corrected now…While the diplomatic relationship with India has been very positive, I’m not sure we’ve built out the diplomatic footprint here and the commercial opportunities to the extent that perhaps we should have, given the reality that India is now a global superpower, economically, militarily and from a diplomatic point of view. The leadership of India within the G20, for example, was a really good example of the kind of leadership that this country could provide. I think you’ll see Ireland investing significantly more in terms of building out our footprint, and adding more diplomats to our teams here, not just in Delhi but in other cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The world is changing, and we have seen a lot of geopolitical tension in recent years. We have a war in Europe again, driven and caused by Russian aggression looking to try to change international borders by force. That’s a war that’s three years old now and doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon. We’ve seen war in the Middle East, and huge losses of civilians, women and children, in Gaza on the back of a horrific terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel. Again, India’s voice is listened to and heard in the context of conflicts like that and we’ve seen a lot of disruption in terms of supply chains as well. Countries and economies and large multinationals [are looking] to maybe reshape their supply chains, anticipating potential future tension in terms of geopolitical relationships, and in 2024, literally half the world is going to vote in very significant elections – European elections, the election in India, election in the US, in the UK, in Ireland too and in many other countries that are significant in terms of international trade.

There’s probably more uncertainty now in terms of globalisation and international supply chains than at any time in my political lifetime, which is 26 years now. As a result of that, I think a lot of people are a lot of countries are perhaps viewing India through a different lens than five or 10 years ago. They see a large democracy here that is relatively stable and has good relationships with most parts of the world. I think it’s seen as a safer bet in terms of reliance and predictability around future supply chains, whether that’s semiconductors, food security or a whole range of other trades. That’s why the EU does want to put a free trade agreement in place and Ireland is a big supporter of that.

Do you think the India-EU trade deal will be done soon given that both sides are set to hold elections?

It’s never easy to get a trade agreement of that scale in place. We know that India has defensive interests as well as offensive ones. So does the EU. I think we’re unlikely to see a deal before this side of the European elections. In India, they understand the reality of elections. It does sort of pause progress on what are complex and sometimes quite political negotiations, but I certainly think that once the European elections are out of the way, once there’s a new European Commission in place, and once the elections here are out of the way, I hope that in the autumn we’ll see an acceleration of efforts to try to put a trade deal in place. We think it would be really good news for India in terms of trade with one of the highest-spending markets in the world. We think it would be good news for the EU as well in terms of certainty around supply chains and an absence of trade barriers and tariffs.

You have talked about connecting with the “affinity diaspora” or Indians who have some sort of link with Ireland. Could you tell us more about that?

The Irish way of connecting with the world isn’t based on military strength or dominance. It’s based on relationships, it’s about culture, it’s about music, it’s about trading, it’s about building friendships, it’s about education. The Irish way of doing things is all about relationships with everybody. That’s why we’re militarily not aligned as a country. That’s why we see multilateralism as really the essence of international politics. We have a diaspora all over the world that is many, many multiples of how many people actually live in Ireland. Our diaspora is 40 to 50 million people and that’s a very powerful asset. It’s a small diaspora here in India, but I hope one that’s going to grow. But interestingly, what we have in India is what we’re now referring to as an “affinity diaspora”, in other words, Indians who’ve been to Ireland, who liked their experience there, who’ve now come back here and are senior decision-makers. We think we can build both trade opportunities but also political cooperation in the future on the back of those kind of connections. Ireland is no threat to anybody, but we’re very focused on trying to find solutions in parts of the world that are torn apart by conflict. We have very strong views on that given our own history, a history that’s not that dissimilar to India. It is very different in terms of scale but in terms of the story around colonisation, a difficult and quite violent fight for freedom and prosperity now on the back of that independence. Our flags aren’t the same colours by coincidence, and I think we can build on that. I hope Ireland can be a gateway for India and a friend of India in the EU, and I hope that we can be a trusted partner on some of these big difficult challenges that we’ve got to solve through multilateralism in places like the UN and elsewhere