For Irish business seeking assistance and support on its China journey, one of its first stops must be the Ireland China Science and Technology Association.
Established in Ireland in 2017, ICSATA has received support and endorsement from the Irish Embassy to China, the Chinese Embassy to Ireland, all the relevant departments from both the Irish and Chinese governments, the European Commission, and the Mission of China to the EU.
Its aim is to develop an international platform for science and technology exchanges to promote the overall collaboration between Ireland, EU and China, notably in technology, trade, culture and education. It helps promote the China-Ireland bilateral relationship at all levels. ICSATA also assists their market entry, investment, trade and other business activities across Ireland/EU and China.
“When we first established ICSATA in 2017, it was a part-time job for me; by 2019, it was so busy it became a full-time role,” said Wen Chen, chair of ICSATA.
However, due to the Covid pandemic in 2020, the association’s activities were impacted for the following two years.
“It was a challenging time, but we survived and saw business activity return in 2022. This year we are reaching a historical high. We have just recently received a 30-person delegation from Shaanxi, site of the famous Terracotta Warriors, and the birthplace of our President, Xi Jinping, for a technology and trade conference in Limerick. Earlier this month we also welcomed another delegation from Chengdu.”
As CEO and chair of Ireland China Science And Technology Association, Wen has over 18 years’ experience working in the telecom industry across retail, customer service, technical support, marketing, business development, account management and PR.
He supported Cubic Telecom for their China market development since 2014, and previous to that worked for Ding for five years where he was promoted as the Regional Head of Europe and China. Before Ding, Wen also worked in Vodafone Ireland for thre years as a Consumer Propositions Executive in Marketing. Appointed by Anqiu Municipal Government as the Director of Talent Workstation of Anqiu City to Ireland in 2018, Wen was also honoured as the Ningbo Culture Ambassador by Ningbo Municipal Government in 2017.
At the official opening of the Irish pavilion at the China International Consumer Products Expo at Haikou in April, Ireland was guest of honour this year, showcasing Irish food and drink, healthcare, fashion and technology, as well as State bodies such as Culture Ireland, Tourism Ireland, Bord Bia, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.
“The Expo gave Ireland an opportunity to build on its position as a hub for Chinese technology companies in Europe. The Irish people and the Irish Government are especially friendly with the Chinese. Secondly, Ireland is traditionally strong in ICT, pharmaceuticals, data centres, and also recently the AI cloud computing sectors that attract the high tech companies,” he said.
“The Irish Pavilion was the largest ever in size, with 40 brands exhibiting there, including ourselves in ICSATA. The expo was a great success and was the result of the great efforts made by the Irish Ambassador, Ann Derwin. Ireland successfully competed against Germany to be the official guest of honour at this important event, which was quite an achievement.”
ICSATA has created an international scientific and technological exchange and cooperation platform by integrating the whole eco-system of “production, academic and research”, strengthening the exchange and interactive development between China-Ireland technology companies, universities and scientific research institutions. One key partner is China Science and Technology Association (CAST).
“Since 2023 when the Chinese government lifted the international travel ban, the exchanges and relationship between the two countries has been growing very strongly. And already in 2024, we are experiencing another high tide on co-operation between the two countries.”
ICSATA is dedicated to promoting the education collaboration between Ireland and China, focusing not only the education courses, but also the talent exchanges. Since its establishment, ICSATA has been actively bridging the education exchanges by working closely with governments, universities, R&D institutes, companies and individuals in the two countries.
“The priority of ICSATA is to promote Ireland, but especially for the non-Dublin regions. We have come to realise that the biggest business opportunity is not in the capital city — it is actually outside of Dublin, especially in ICT, AI technology and hospitality.
“There are very significant opportunities to develop business in cities like Limerick, Galway and Cork. This is the reason we are focusing our promotions into the non-Dublin regions, and it is already paying dividends with more and more Chinese attention being focused in these thriving cities outside the capital.”
WrxFlo helps its customers get the right data insights to achieve greater levels of process efficiency throughout the supply chain. Based at its Limerick head office, WrxFlo works with clients across the globe in a range of sectors to achieve a single source of truth from their various data streams.
“We give our customers access to all their data in real-time and help them understand the problems they are facing throughout their supply chain,” explains CEO Tim Crowe. “We do this by connecting their manufacturing and management systems and visualising all their data in their WrxFlo dashboards, accessible anywhere in the world.”
WrxFlo was founded in 2019, having identified a unique gap in the market of combining technology solutions/data insights with the experience of delivering very specific business and customer outcomes.
Having graduated from UL with a BSc in Production Engineering & MSc Project Management, Tim has setup several Dell factories globally and has held global roles such as Engineering Director, Director of Operations and Factory Managing Director for Dell. Tim also led the global factory continuous improvement programme.
Having worked in China early in his career setting up a supply chain for Dell to sell to Europe and the United States, it was the experience of seeing the problems that arose in factories that inspired him and others to set up WrxFlo.
“We give a real-time view of the entire supply chain and we make it work really efficiently and maximise the value from that,” he said. Having opened a Beijing office for WrxFlo in April, he sees big opportunities not only to provide services to Chinese companies, but also to bring innovative technology back to Europe. As an exhibitor at the China International Consumer Products Expo in Haikou, he highlighted the introduction of visa-free access for Irish visitors to China as another important step in easing access to this vast market. Opening the Beijing office is an essential move for his company.
“If I was in China and I was looking to an Irish company that was putting a presence in here, you’re very far away. That’s why we opened in the office. We are building a team here so that the businesses that we work with know that they can go to the local team and be supported here. I think that’s really important if we’re going to win new business,” he said.
“I lived in China ten years ago, working for Dell, and have built up a lot of contacts. So when we set up WrxFlo, we worked with Wen at ICSATA to look at the best place to set up customer centre and support office, and opened in Beijing back in April. Really, when you’re going into a market and want to grow there, you have to have a presence there. And we have our first Chinese national, Christina from Shanghai, who has been with us for the past two years in Dublin, now moving there to run that office.
“She understands our business, our culture, our products, and will focus on China now. It is great that we already have reference sites in China, and now we are looking at growing the business — but also partnering with technology companies there, small businesses like ourselves. We will bring our solutions to manufacturing in China, and will look at innovative solutions from our partners there.”
Prior to setting up WrxFlo, Tim lived with his family in China and worked as the CEO of the Dell Chengdu facility. Having designed, built and run that facility, it gave him a deep understanding of the Chinese market and the challenges of running operations there. As WrxFlo expands its expertise in China, the company aims to establish itself as a trusted partner in the Chinese market and contribute to the country’s economic growth and digital transformation.
“Support agencies like Enterprise Ireland and people like Wen at ICSATA are important for companies entering the Chinese market in helping guide them to do things the right way. It is important to do the right thing in China, making sure everything is set up properly and basically covering all the bases. It does help to set up an office in China, people over there feel much more comfortable doing business knowing you have those foundations in place.”
Despite a turbulent world, with wars, climate change and political unrest combining to create a mood of uncertainty, Tim sees the steadily building relationship between Ireland and China continuing to grow into the future.
“The relationship between the two countries is very good, and is becoming more accessible all the time, as evidenced by the new visa situation. There is a perception out there that China is a very difficult place to do business and that there are many challenges involved, but the Chinese are making a lot of changes to improve access, and there is a lot of effort on their side and the different provinces to reach out.
“They know they have a partner bringing foreign business to help their economy, and they don’t just want to attract big companies but also small companies that will grow bigger over time. And that is good news for any Irish companies that are looking to go there to do business.”
