Mr. Li Changchun, accompanied by a large delegation of senior officials from the Chinese government, including four government ministers, two vice ministers and the Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, visited Norkom on Monday, 27th September, as part of his two-day state visit, which included a meeting with the Irish President, Mrs. Mary McAleese, in Aras an Uachtarain.

According to Ambassador Liu Biwei, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to Ireland, "It was His Excellency's first visit to Ireland and a fantastic opportunity to meet one of Ireland's leading software companies."

Speaking about the momentous visit, Mr. Paul Kerley, Norkom's Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are extremely honoured to host this visit by His Excellency Mr. Li Changchun and his senior officials to Norkom today. China represents a key strategic market for Norkom going forward, with some of the largest financial institutions in the world emerging from there. In addition, China is on the cusp of introducing new regulations on Money Laundering, Fraud and other areas of Risk Management, and Norkom is currently in active discussions with a number of Chinese financial institutions who are preparing to meet those increased requirements. Norkom already has a presence in China with a number of global financial institutional clients, including Standard Chartered Bank, Rabobank and HSBC. We are confident that over the coming period we can add a number of Chinese banks to our expanding family of clients worldwide".

"Enterprise Ireland was delighted to facilitate the introduction of H.E. Li Changchun to some of our key technology companies on his first visit to Ireland," said Frank Ryan, CEO of Enterprise Ireland. "The visit to Norkom on an extremely tight programme demonstrated the seriousness with which China takes the relationship with Ireland. We look forward to building on these links with Norkom and their Chinese customers on the trade mission to China early next year."