©2013 Galesburg Broadcasting Co.
| Trade Mission Seeks Benefits |
FIRST REPORTED 3:00pm 12/21/12 Galesburg businesses may have an opportunity to expand their reach if talks are any indication.
The City of Galesburg Economic Development Department, seven companies, and the World Trade Organization out of Chicago recently returned from a week long trade mission to Indonesia.
The developing nation is the 17th largest economy in the world right now with a growth rate of 6.5 percent.
Thirty-five business meetings were set up with the help of the U.S. Embassy, World Trade Center, and Department of Commerce in the preceding months.
Economic Development Department's Global Strategies Director Gary Camarano tells WGIL Indonesia is natural resource rich and is looking for the U.S.'s help to extract them.
"They need to get public transportation going in a big way," says Camarano. "They've got projects going on: monorail, public transportation rail and so on. So there's a lot of opportunity for companies in the U.S. that are involved with industries to get involved and potentially sell there."
Indonesia is currently making what is considered to be relatively large infrastructure investments.
Camarano says that by pursuing a public/private partnership, he's confident firms in or near Galesburg can get a few railroad contracts.
"The fact that we were able to get meetings with high ranking government ministry officials that kind of moves the process further along it gives companies credibility and access to decision makers because a lot of the funding comes from the government there."
Galesburg's Flipple Company and Koppers were among the seven businesses travelling on the mission. Camarano says he thinks trading will be mutually beneficial.
"In the past we've lost some textile jobs but you know what? They're not going to be able to get a Kress Manufacturing into Indonesia so we're exporting products that they can always get from here and aren't very transferable."
Camerano says many of the companies came away with high prospects for increasing exports. He says the trip wasn't a one time deal, saying they plan to invest further resources in Indonesia. |
|
| 12 21 12 by Newsroom |
Share
Click here for the WGIL News Archive
Click here for national news
All AP stories are Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.
.PNG)