On 22 February 2021 the Honorary Consulate organised a virtual trade meeting with representatives of the Northern Ireland Executive Office and San Marino.
The meeting aimed at identifying the common areas and business opportunities between Northern Ireland (NI) and San Marino, as well as providing some clarity on how to do business with NI in the post Brexit era.
The meeting was chaired by Dr Bragagni, who introduced parties and explained the purpose of the meeting together with its agenda.
During the meeting, participants had the opportunity to engage in open and frank discussions on the current business opportunities and advantages of NI, economic sectors with the most possibilities for attracting the FDIs, as well to get an overview of the current situation in NI after Brexit and at what extent these opportunities were affected.
The representatives from San Marino were able to establish direct contacts with the NI business partners, as well to learn from the NI experience in making their economy competitive in economic sectors such as:
- Manufacturing
- Engineering
- Financial services
- Food processing
- Software/programming developing
- Cybersecurity software and systems
The key to success, according to the NI representatives, was the tendence to always listen to the business requests and concerns in the decision making process, as well to invest in education and continuous vocational training.
At the end of the meeting all parties exchanged views on how to better approach the market of both countries, on the need to continue dialogue through the facilitation of the Consulate and extended a reciprocal invitation to visit both countries later this year when hopefully these visits could be feasible.
As there is an increased need for business representatives to get clarity on doing business in NI, the Consulate will keep in the focus of its work to organise more meetings in the future and facilitate the exchange of information.
