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Summit to encourage Valley businesses to export
youngstown
A Brookings Institution report that ranked Youngstown as the top market for export growth served as the catalyst for the TechBelt Export Summit.
The report said the Mahoning Valley had a 29 percent increase in exports between 2009 and 2010. These were the most recent figures available, said Eric Planey, vice president of International Business Attraction for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
The summit is from noon to 4 p.m. Monday at the D.D. & Velma Davis Education & Visitor Center in Fellows Riverside Gardens at 123 McKinley Ave. The keynote speakers for the summit are Fred Hochberg, chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce Francisco J. Sanchez.
“It’s incredible to be able to get two of the top people in the Obama administration in terms of exporting to come to Youngstown,” Planey said. “It shows what Washington thinks of what’s going on here in the Mahoning Valley.”
The hope is that companies new to exporting will learn what assistance is available and that those who have exported for a while will hear from other businesses how they might expand, he said.
Companies that never have exported should learn from this summit that it is possible to export, said Linda Caruso, from the United States Commercial Service.
“Exporting is a way to diversify your business without having to change your product. You’re diversifying your market,” she said.
All of the agencies at the state and federal level that support exporting work well together, but hopefully through the summit businesses will learn where to turn, Caruso said.
This event will serve as a kickoff to an increased focus in the Mahoning Valley on exporting, said Mousa Kassis, international trade adviser for the International Trade Assistance Center at Youngstown State University.
“It’s very important to have more exports for economic growth in the U.S.,” he said. “It’s important to be in the international market when 95 percent of customers are outside of the U.S.”
The country is moving in the right direction in terms of exports, but there still is a long way to go, Kassis said.
There are a number of resources available in this area to help people to export goods. This event puts them into one place, Planey said.
At one time, there were several of these types of events in the Mahoning Valley, he said.
“They sort of cannibalized each other. At some of them, you’d only see 20 people,” Planey said.
There already have been 50 who have registered for the summit with the goal to have roughly 100 in attendance, he said.
Advanced registration for the event is required. Online registration is available at www.regionalchamber.com by clicking on the summit on the event calendar.
The cost for the event is $35.