JEDDAH, 21 January 2008 — A trade mission from Northern Ireland, hosted by UK Trade and Industry at the British Consulate in Jeddah is visiting Saudi Arabia on a five-day tour. The delegation, led by Bill McGinnis consists of 12 small to medium businesses many of which boast long relationships with the Kingdom. The mission will visit Riyadh on Jan. 22 and 23 and Dammam on Jan 24.
“As a mission we visit about once a year,” said McGinnis whose own business relationship as chairman of McAvoy Off-Site Building Solutions with the Kingdom extends over 30 years. “Each time we come, we bring some newcomers as we are trying to develop the export market.” He noted that already the Gulf region accounts for close to $8billion ($SR30 billion) per annum export business for Northern Ireland. “We are pretty competitive as an exporting community,” added putting the success down to a combination of product and business style. Northern Ireland he said retained many of its traditional industries – for example textiles — but had a lively IT sector and highly developed health sciences sector.
A significant factor in the business relationship with the Kingdom was that with only three PLCs in Northern Ireland, many businesses in the province were family run. “Saudi businesses relate that very well and what began as business relationships here many years ago have often developed into life-long friendships.”
Mission Manager Noel Johnston, explained that the health sector had very good relationships with many universities in the Kingdom. The strong academic history of the province that boasts both Queens University and the University of Ulster each with world-class research facilities. “Our main universities have research centers of international standing in biotechnology, biomedical sciences, nanotechnology, electronics engineering and software development,” he said.
The big news in terms of business potential for the last year thought McGinnis was the stability that the peace process had brought to the political scene and the positive effect that it had on the development of commerce and industry in Northern Ireland.
In the intriguing display of products and services, three caught the eye. An unlikely, but on reflection immensely useful, product on display was a commercial grease trap for restaurant and hotel kitchens. Designed to protect sewerage systems from the build-up of bio-effluents, this seemingly simple and usually unseen device is required by local ordnance in many countries and looks to have potential in minimizing the effects of commercial fast-food outlets on Jeddah’s new sewage system.
John McAteer, managing director of PWS brought a highly innovative device — a digital traffic sign that is entirely solar powered and maintenance free. Wholly portable, they can be manoeuvred into place for temporary traffic control and were used recently for the guidance of Haj traffic. Intriguingly, the message displayed on the high visibility screen can be changed as traffic conditions demand through a mobile phone call to the built in computer.