Your Total Guide To business

Local Businesses Helped to Boost Export Sales in High Growth Markets

Business West, the largest international trade support organisation in the South West, has signed four major international partnership agreements with business bodies across China, India, Latin America and South East Asia to help local businesses expand their global footprint.

Agreements with the China Britain Business Council (CBBC), the UK India Business Council (UKIBC), Latin American Economic Growth Management and the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) will see Business West engage in a spectrum of activity to help boost firms’ export sales in these high-growth markets. This will include market entry strategy and planning, and the facilitation of in-country specialist support, all delivered free of charge to eligible businesses.

Business West’s John Rubidge, head of innovation in services, explained:

“The South West region is home to a large number of companies in the Food and Drink and Tech industries, for example, whose products and services are strongly in demand in high-growth nations across Asia and Latin America.

“Unfortunately, however, many of the companies who are well placed to take advantage of these opportunities lack the expertise or resources required to find overseas buyers, resulting in an uphill struggle to gain a foothold in these markets. That is where we come in.

“Extend your Global Reach, a new support programme, is designed to help exporters overcome this challenge by fostering relationships on the ground with key business contacts overseas.”

The variety of opportunities open to South West firms in these high-growth markets is hugely diverse.

Sarah Hildersley, Business West’s market specialist for Latin America, said:

“I recently returned from a visit to Colombia and the country’s congress has just signed a new peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), putting a welcome end to the conflict that traumatized the country for so long.

“As a result, the Colombian market is becoming increasingly open to new goods, technologies and services from abroad. The newly formed Ministry of Post Conflict is embarking upon a number of ambitious projects to help the economy recover and to ensure that the benefits of peace are felt by all communities.