Chinese medicine, African rumba and Bollywood films were all represented at the inaugural awards ceremony to recognise ethnic entrepreneurs in Ireland, which was held in Dublin this week.
"It's a way of being recognised and acknowledged for something you do in this society," said the Cork-based Alvina Grosu, from Moldova, whose shortlisted company, Culturewise Ireland, provides training and education in cultural diversity.
President Mary McAleese presented the Permanent TSB Ethnic Entrepreneur of the Year awards to the winners in six categories.
"It's an inspiration and I hope it goes from strength to strength," said Rita Shah, overall winner of the Ethnic Entrepreneur of the Year award and also winner of the Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award. "And I hope it becomes one of the great symbols of Ireland."
Shah's Castleblaney-based company, Shabra, which she set up in 1995, recycles waste plastics from all over Ireland and employs around 55 people.
Siraj Zaidi, of Bollywood Ireland, a shortlisted film distribution and production company, who was shortlisted, said: "I've been working so long in a mainstream environment and all of a sudden we've been put into this new identity, an ethnic entrepreneur identity that is recognising work that has sometimes been lost in a mainstream world . . . My ethnic identity was not an issue up to 15 years ago, which is fascinating . . . It's very complimentary to be part of something that is new and exciting."
The awards "encourage people, who would ordinarily not have thought that something like this was possible, to step out of their own boundaries," said Clement Esebamen, who works with the Tallaght Partnership.
They are "a fantastic idea", said Joshua Tasia, aka Dr Rumba, director of the International Dance Academy.
"More and more people from another country contribute in terms of culture, in terms of economy, they bring new stuff to that society, so that's good," said Dr Zehua Hu, whose wife, Dr Jane Li, was shortlisted in the awards for their company, Health and Harmony Clinic, in Dublin's Portobello.