Post-Covid Prospects: Ireland

Chan: How is the vaccination programme progressing in Ireland? Do we have a timetable or a roadmap to indicate when the majority of the population will be vaccinated?

Costello: Irish scientists like the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Dr Michael Ryan, Emer Cooke, the Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency, and Professors Adrian Hill and Teresa Lambe, who are behind the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, have been at the forefront of scientific research into life-changing Covid responses.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, therefore, Ireland has trusted the science, with perhaps the most dramatic and constructive evidence being our vaccination efforts.

The Irish vaccination programme was launched on 29 December 2020 in coordination with other EU member states. By early September 2021, more than 7 million doses had been administered, with 92% of the adult population partially vaccinated and some 88% fully immunised. This places Ireland in the Top 15 territories in the world – with a population above 300,000 people – in terms of vaccine uptake. This is extraordinary, especially when taking into account the fact that one in five of Ireland’s population is under the age of 15 and not currently eligible for vaccination.

With age and vulnerability being the driving forces, the phased vaccination programme has prioritised those who are most at risk from the coronavirus – such as senior citizens aged 65 or above living in long-term care facilities and frontline healthcare workers. The success of this approach is evident with 100% of those aged 70+, more than 98% of those aged 60-69 and more than 96% of those aged 50-59 now fully vaccinated. This has led to the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) making a live TV address to the nation announcing a road map to the full re-opening of Ireland. In line with this, a booster vaccine programme will be a key factor in the easing of the remaining restrictions in time for the Government’s October 22 deadline.

As a proven powerhouse for growth, financial services and related fintech businesses are among the most promising sectors for Ireland-Hong Kong collaboration. Our Ireland for Finance strategy – launched in Ireland in April 2019 (and in Hong Kong in September 2019) – will continue to support the future development of the sector in Ireland. The aim is to be a top-tier global location of choice for specialist international financial services through 2025, and to increase connection and cooperation with important financial centres, including Hong Kong.

An important pillar of the strategy is the development of Ireland as an international fintech hub. As one of the world’s most active fintech seed investors and enablers scaling up Irish fintech companies, Enterprise Ireland, the Irish state trade and investment agency, has had an office in Hong Kong for more than 18 years promoting Irish fintech solutions in the city’s financial ecosystem. For the last three years in a row, Ireland has sent the largest international delegation to Hong Kong FinTech Week.

Among the many different sectors of the fintech world, Ireland is seen as a world leader in regulatory technology (regtech). Irish regtech companies have proven experience of resolving the kind of risk and compliance issues that are fast emerging across Asia. A detailed analysis of how Hong Kong has been one of the key Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets experiencing a surge in regulatory requirements is included in the Enterprise Ireland’s State of Regtech in APAC Report.

Many Irish regtech companies are active in Hong Kong. Fenergo, an Irish regtech ‘unicorn’ and the industry’s number one provider of client lifecycle management software solutions for financial institutions, has recently opened an office in Hong Kong and is supporting leading banks with regulatory onboarding issues. MCO (MyComplianceOffice) works with financial firms across APAC to tackle increased regulatory, enforcement and compliance pressures by automating conduct-risk management. Know Your Customer, with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, has quickly established a reputation for solutions that streamline onboarding through strengthening Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) compliance.

The strategy also plays a key role in the creation and delivery of policies on sustainable finance and the transition to a climate-neutral economy. Ireland, among the first in the world to divest from global fossil fuel companies, passed the Fossil Fuel Disinvestment Act 2018 in 2018 when its sovereign development fund – Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) – completed divestment of €68m from 38 global fossil fuel companies. Euronext Dublin’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) bond listings increased by more than 317% year-on-year in the first four months of 2021, with issuance reaching €20.2bn. That compares to last year’s figure of €4.9bn. Cumulative ESG bond issuances on Euronext Dublin topped €93bn by the end of April 2021.

Ireland’s credentials in this area and our encouraging ESG bond market development align well with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)’s May 2021 guideline on the three-year Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme (GSF Grant Scheme that consolidates the Pilot Bond Grant Scheme and Green Bond Grant Scheme). This provides subsidies for eligible bond issuers and loan borrowers to cover their expenses on bond issuance and external review services. Together with the People’s Bank of China’s April revision of its green investment guideline with updated rules on green bond issuances, this is likely to encourage larger issuance sizes and also attract investors currently skeptical about boarding the sustainability train.

One of my first roles as Consul General of Ireland in Hong Kong was to bear witness in October 2018 to the signing of an MOU between Sustainable Finance Ireland and the Hong Kong Green Finance Association. As part of the 2020 Policy Address, the Chief Executive of HKSAR has set a target for Hong Kong to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050, making the scope for cross-jurisdictional collaboration – especially with Ireland – in sustainable finance and low-carbon economic transformation in Hong Kong clearer and sharper.

Pharma and Medtech

Ireland, as a global hub for pharmaceuticals and medtech, expects to benefit from the unabated growth in exports of medical devices and pharmaceutical products in 2021 and the years ahead, given the fact that the country is home to many of the world’s biggest players in these sectors, such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Roche and AbbVie.

The pandemic has shown how important it is for companies to be flexible and agile to respond to the needs of the market. Many Irish pharma and medtech companies have pivoted to develop solutions in areas such as contact tracing, traveller safety and hygiene transparency in the hospitality sector, while - as one of the world’s top five medtech hubs alongside Germany, the US, Switzerland and China – Ireland’s medical device and supplies production has been ramped up to meet global demand for nebulisers, ventilators and other treatment and protection equipment.

For example, Medtronic, the world’s largest standalone medical device maker, has more than doubled its workforce and moved to a round-the-clock operation to produce ventilators, Aerogen has increased production of its aerosol drug delivery products through ventilators to patients in critical and intensive care, and M&M Qualtech, which produces ventilators, nebulisers and medical monitoring equipment for medtech users, has reported capacity demand three to five times higher than pre-crisis levels.

In addition to big FDI projects from the US and Europe, we have been looking at investment from growth markets, of which mainland China would probably be the most important. We have secured the largest greenfield life sciences investment by a Chinese company in Europe, with Wuxi Biologics building a major production facility in Dundalk, a town halfway between Dublin and Belfast.

Many Irish companies have used their flair for innovation to come up with answers to alleviate the crisis. Software development company NearForm has worked with Ireland’s public healthcare system, or Health Service Executive (HSE), to develop the national Covid Tracker app, which is now being used not only in Ireland, but also Northern Ireland, Gibraltar, Scotland and several states in the US, including Delaware and Pennsylvania. The Consulate in Hong Kong has partnered with Novaerus – which develops portable air disinfection devices using nanotechnology to inactivate airborne microorganisms to restore and maintain indoor air quality to provide first-line protection against viruses and bacteria – to ensure state-of-the-art protection from airborne viruses for our customers and citizens.

Other innovators producing solutions during the crisis include:

• Swiftqueue (software optimising appointments at Covid-19 urgent test centres),
• Daon (biometric authentication and identity assurance solutions to help bring passengers and employees back to airports),
• Taoglas (crowd control to maintain social distancing),
• SilverCloud Health (an open platform to help users cope with the mental impact of Covid-19),
• NewsWhip (news story tracking and social media analytics),
• Aerospace Software Developments (cleanliness monitoring for aircraft seat covers),
• Edgescan (cybersecurity services for remote workforce), and 
• Kastus (patented 24/7 antimicrobial coating technology for touchscreen/other surfaces).

All these positive developments bode well for collaboration, given Hong Kong’s roles as a global medical services hub and a world-leading biotech fundraising hub, not to mention the opening of the city’s first smart hospital – Chinese University of Hong Kong Medical Center (CUHKMC) – specifically designed to make full use of the latest advances in mobile technology, Internet of Things (IoT) and paperless care model for every aspect of care delivery and hospital management.

Agribusiness

Lesser known perhaps in Hong Kong but certainly a force to be reckoned with is the increasingly strong global demand for Irish food and beverages (F&B). Higher expectations for credentials around sustainability and safety of food products, especially after the global pandemic, are set to put Ireland in the spotlight. Demand for dairy products is expected to continue to outpace supply, while demand for pig meat and sheep meat exports, particularly from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, will continue to lend support to our meat producers.

Thanks to the dividend of a decade-long diversification strategy and the Origin Green programme, which today collaborates with more than 53,000 farms and 324 leading Irish F&B companies responsible for some 90% of the nation’s F&B exports, Irish agri exports now reach in excess of 180 countries. The industry’s success is also evidenced by a reduced dependence on the UK market, particularly since the Brexit referendum in 2016. In the period since the UK voted to leave the EU, Ireland’s F&B exports grew by 16% to top €1.9 billion, with Asia seeing a 14% uplift to €1.4 billion.

As the place where whiskey found its name, Ireland is the home of whiskey distilling with a history of whiskey production far longer than anywhere else. As Hong Kongers discover the depth and diversity of Irish whiskey, we have no doubt this will reflect well in the city’s Irish whiskey sales.

With a return to global economic growth, Bord Bia/Irish Food Board’s action plans, programmes and priorities for 2021 and beyond are centred on value creation for the full supply chain – from farm to fork. Hong Kong’s status as a free port for international gourmet F&B means it is well-positioned to help new-to-the-region Irish companies promote their delicacies in Asia.

Aviation

When it comes to aviation (including aircraft leasing and financing), it is astonishing – even for me as the Irish Consul General – to discover that 8,000 of the world’s 27,000 commercial aviation fleets are managed from Ireland. Over 50 of the world’s aviation leasing companies are based in Ireland, including 14 of the top 15 lessors, managing 63% of the world’s fleet of leased aircraft with assets worth more than €159 billion. This is thanks largely to our enviable legal and regulatory framework, including an extensive array of more than 70 double tax avoidance agreements, and a well-educated talent pool featuring, for example, Europe’s first Masters in Aviation Finance programme.

Ryanair, which was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Dublin, is currently Europe’s largest airline group, the fifth biggest airline in the world in terms of the number of passengers and eighth biggest by fleet size. In a normal aviation year, an Irish-leased aircraft takes off every two seconds and three in every 10 planes flying overhead are domiciled in Ireland.

Of course, 2020 and 2021 are far from normal, with 30% of the global fleet remaining parked. But we believe we have good reasons for optimism. The International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s figures continue to suggest a strong improvement in demand, and even more reassuringly, a flurry of aircraft reactivations has taken place in most regions.