The Irish Embassy held the “2nd Ireland-Saudi Arabia Technology Showcase” event at the Sheraton Hotel in the Saudi capital recently with representatives of various local firms attending.

“It’s pleasing and heartening indeed to see many Irish and Saudi businessmen in the same room,” said Irish Ambassador Tony Cotter as he addressed the participants in the showcase event.

He thanked Assistant Secretary General for Foreign Affairs at the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) Waleed Al-Orainan and Amin Al-Shanqiti, chairman of Ireland Saudi Arabia Business Council “for their tremendous support and collaboration to put together this event.

“My sincere thanks also go to my colleagues at Enterprise Ireland, in particular to Sean Davis and his team for this event Rory Power, Nancy Salam and Ikram Ur Rehman,” the Irish ambassador said.

He noted that Ireland is now internationally recognized as a global hub in the area of Information & Communication Technology (ICT).

He said that Ireland is home to 9 of the top 10 global software companies and that all of the top 10 “Born on the Internet” companies are based in Ireland.

“Companies such as Apple, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft, Dell, Amazon, Google, eBay, Facebook and many, many more all have one feature in common — they are all based in Ireland,” he said.

He added that such multinational presence has helped boost the local tech industry, has spurred development of local skills base in engineering and has led to a surge in the creation of countless innovative start-ups.

“Ireland’s technology industry now employs over 40,000 people and generates 35 billion pounds in exports annually. Ireland is the second largest exporter of software in the world,” he said.

He added that “of the 600-plus companies that make up the software industry in Ireland, 500 of these are Irish-owned, with any of the leaders in that sector with us today.”