InterTradeIreland Launches New 3-Year Strategy Amid Record €17 Billion Cross-Border Trade
InterTradeIreland launched its new three-year strategy to boost all-island economic collaboration, trade, and enterprise growth. This comes as cross-border trade reached a record €17 billion in 2024. The strategy focuses on supporting SMEs, innovation, and entrepreneurship to drive continued economic success across the island.
InterTradeIreland, the agency supporting economic cooperation across Ireland, has launched its new three-year corporate strategy. Key priorities include leading all-island economic collaboration, driving all-island trade, accelerating enterprise growth, and boosting indigenous business competitiveness.
CEO Margaret Hearty stated the strategy builds on success, having supported thousands of businesses in cross-border exports, innovation, and investment. The new strategy aims to deliver shared economic policy priorities, supporting SMEs to export, build innovation capability through cross-border collaboration, and drive enterprise growth.
The strategy coincides with record cross-border trade, which hit an all-time high of €17 billion in 2024, up from €15 billion the previous year. Hearty noted this growth demonstrates the all-island market's buoyancy despite global geopolitical turmoil. Cross-border exporting is seen as a lower-risk route for businesses to gain export experience, with 77% of businesses surveyed recommending it as a stepping stone to wider international sales.
InterTradeIreland offers various supports, including the Trade Hub for customs and regulatory information, and funding for salespersons. Its Seedcorn competition, with an €800,000 prize fund, helps entrepreneurs secure investment, with past winners like Maverick AI and Arraypatch closing significant deals. The agency also focuses on improving productivity through collaborative innovation, launching new programs to support AI adoption in construction and the Innovation Boost program for graduate hires. Collaboration is central, connecting policymakers, businesses, and experts to identify opportunities for cross-border growth, evidenced by its research and the Synergy Programme developing all-island clusters in sectors like cybersecurity and precision oncology. Hearty highlighted the growth from €2 billion in cross-border trade 26 years ago to over €17 billion today, with the new strategy designed to continue this growth.