Page Two	E-mail PagePrint Version

SAN DIEGO - Under a cooperation agreement with the US Dept. of Commerce, the San Diego World Trade Center (SDWTC) is providing 100 hours of training to a total of 50 individuals in the techniques of exporting products from San Diego to Asia.

Each fluent in an Asian language, the Export Facilitators will act as counselors for small and medium-sized companies in San Diego that are interested in exporting or expanding their exports to at least one of eight major Asian markets - China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

According to a spokesman for the San Diego World Trade Center, the Facilitators "bring an in-depth understanding of the market's culture and business practices, which is critical to export success for small and medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)."

The program calls for the SDWTC to organize a trade mission for Export Facilitators and SME supervisors to participate in a one-week visit to a target market and attend USDOC trade shows, with matchmaking meetings pre-scheduled by the US Commercial Service.
 
In addition, every year the SDWTC in partnership with USDOC industry and market specialists, will organize a conference on export opportunities for the industries in the target markets.

The program is integrated with other resources and services offered by SDWTC and USDOC, such as market counseling, market research and analysis, trade leads development / referrals, Gold Key custom-tailored in-country services, and an agent / distributor search service to provide participating SMEs with the necessary market information and in-country contacts, which are critical to success in Asian market places.

The Asia Pacific region has led the world in economic growth in the past decade. It has also been a major export destination for US technology products.
 
According to US Department of Commerce, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, the top five Asian markets, accounted for more than 25% of US telecommunications and biomedical exports in 2001.
 
With the fast-growing demand and ongoing deregulation in the market place, Asia represents tremendous opportunities for San Diego's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially for the world-leading San Diego industry clusters in biomedical and telecommunications products.

Go back, or read the latest Page Two stories:

MEXICO LIFTS CALIFORNIA LETTUCE BAN

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – 10/20/06 – The weeks-old ban on California lettuce shipments to Mexico has been lifted after US Department of Agriculture tests for the E. coli bacteria proved negative; California is the country’s leading producer of lettuce with an estimated 70-75% of the total US production of iceberg lettuce and between 80-85% of the leaf lettuce.