EXPORTERS URGED TO LOOK AT HUGE CHINESE MARKET - China is drawing level with Japan and is soon set to overtake it as the world's second biggest economy. While many business and cultural links already exist between Ireland and China, the world's biggest export market is largely yet to be exploited by Irish firms. A business seminar, which is taking place today as part of Dublin's Chinese New Year celebrations, will try to encourage more Irish firms to enter the massive Chinese market.
China business consultant Niall O'Reilly of Accurate Limited - who is the Irish Exporters Association's representative in China - says in order to again access to the huge Chinese market, Irish exporters have to have a product that the Chinese have a need for. He says that involves hands-on research of the market, which includes many provinces with economies that are on a par with some some European countries and 45 cities in which are are over 2 million people. He says that attending trade shows is a popular way of making the right contacts on the ground in China.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Hewlett Packard beat expectations as it reported a 25% rise in quarterly net income and raised its revenue and profit forecasts. There was good growth in the US and in emerging markets, particularly China, but the performance in Europe was not so good. Sales in the first three months of its financial year rose by 8% to $31.2 billion, and consumers looking for Windows 7 machines pushed HP's personal computer sales up 20% to $10.6 billion.
*** French bank Société Générale has also reported earnings ahead of forecasts and said it expected its results to recover in 2010. For the last three months of its financial year SocGen's net profit came to €221m, up from €87 million a year earlier. SocGen is France's second-biggest listed bank after BNP Paribas, which earlier this week reported quarterly profits of €1.36 billion.
*** Dawn Farm Foods and the Subway sandwich chain have announced a €700m deal over seven years until 2017. The contract is to supply Subway's European outlets with its cooked meat products. Subway has 32,000 outlets in 90 countries, 107 of them in Ireland. It plans massive expansion in Europe over the next seven years and Dawn Farms will be a key supplier over that time.
*** The US Federal Reserve has raised its estimates of US economic growth and unemployment for 2010, noting a 'moderate pace' of recovery from recession. The Fed projected the US gross domestic product - the broad measure of the country's goods and services output - would expand by up to 3.5% this year. Though the economy overall appeared in better condition, unemployment was expected to remain high. The Fed predicted the jobless rate to hover between 9.5-9.7%, higher than the November estimate of up to 9.7%.
