McDermott to participate in Trade Mission to Ireland
Ryan McDermott, Managing Director of the New England office of McDermott & Thomas Associates, will participate in the 2009 Ireland Chamber of Commerce (ICCUSA) trade mission to Belfast and Dublin. The trade mission was originally scheduled for the fall of 2008 but was postponed due to the world wide economic crisis. All attendees who had planned to travel with the organization in 2008 have committed to make the trip in 2009. The delegation will depart Boston on Monday, March 23rd for Belfast and will arrive home from Dublin on Sunday, March 29th.
“I look forward to further developing the many relationships that we’ve cultivated with the Irish business men and women running successful corporations and trade organizations that we’ve been active with over the years in both Ireland and Northern Ireland”, said McDermott who has travelled with ICCUSA in both 2006 and 2007 on trade missions and has been invovled in domestic trade missions where the organization has hosted delegations from Ireland interested in doing business in New England.
Additionally, this will be the first year that ICCUSA will be travelling with the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment (MOITI), a quasi State organization instrumental in attracting international business to the Commonwealth (http://www.moiti.state.ma.us/). “We’ve found that it’s been good for business to openly work with and assist the Commonwealth in attracting business to Massachusetts. As a service provider to international companies, it puts us in a strong position of influence when we can help these companies not only in our own specialties but also with assistance from valuable State agencies like MOITI.”
As stated on the ICCUSA New England website (http://www.iccusanewengland.com/), the mission will visit both Ireland and Northern Ireland because the regions share growing life sciences, information technology, and travel and tourism sectors, as well as, historic and cultural ties to New England. Building ties in these specific industries will benefit ICCUSA members, the New England Region, Ireland and Northern Ireland, by leading more international companies to utilize New England as a gateway to North America and more US companies to see Ireland as an enty point to the European Union.
As an example of the opportunity delivered by such a mission, the total value exports from Massachusetts to Ireland have been rising since 2004 with a remarkable growth of 55% from 2006 to 2007, representing over $715 million in commodities. In addition, the value of exported pharmaceutical products to Ireland increased over 6,000% from 2006 to 2007 alone.
One of the highlights for the trip will be a reception hosted by the US Ambassador at his residence in Pheonix Park as well as a session covering a post credit crunch economic outlook for Ireland from executives at Ulster Bank, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland which will be moderated by Mr. McDermott. “It will be interesting to see how a European country with a strong economic track record in recent years like Ireland is responding the Global Credit Crunch.” said Mr. McDermott.
You can follow Mr. McDermott’s experiences daily on this blog and at http://twitter.com/MTHBoston.
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McDermott & Thomas Associates is a firm specializing in Employee Benefit Planning, Insurance Planning, Retirement Planning, Payroll and Human Resource Outsourcing. The company was established in 1980 and has offices in Boston, MA, Princeton, NJ and Staten Island, NY. The firm insures clients primarily located in the North East with a specialization in assisting companies that are newly Incorporated and/or expanding into the United States for the first time.
ICCUSA is a highly regarded trade organization that actively promotes the development of economic, commercial, financial and educational relationships between the United States and the island of Ireland. ICCUSA members are business executives and entrepreneurs in the U.S., Ireland and Northern Ireland.
