Lester, Watkins on International Trade Center
Friday, November 16, 2012
International Trade Center offers help for small businesses
Oklahoma State University Regents Chairman Andy Lester expressed optimism that OSU can help small businesses find new opportunities to export their products during a recent open house hosted by OSU and The Oklahoma Small Development Center to celebrate the International Trade Center--SBDC at the Wes Watkins Center.
"This Center for International Trade and Development is an incredible opportunity for businesses in Oklahoma," said Lester. "It's important for us to look beyond not only the borders of Oklahoma but also the United States for exports. The world is changing rapidly and it's important to keep up."
The Wes Watkins Center for International Trade and Development’s focus is on strengthening Oklahoma’s economic development by providing world-class export advisory services by partnering with companies to enhance their export programs through high-value counseling and client engagement.
With 96 percent of the world’s consumer base living outside of the United States, international trade can extend a product’s lifecycle, hedge against a slowing domestic sale and diversify a client base.
Congressman Wes Watkins has had a vision for international trade in Oklahoma for many years and is passionate about getting Oklahoma products into the world market and creating new jobs for small and medium sized businesses.
“We are going to be proactive. There are a lot of businesses out there that would like to do international trade but they just don’t know how,” Watkins said. “If we can assist small businesses to get out to the rest of the world, what a great impact that will have on the economy – we want Oklahoma to lead this effort.”
The open house served as a time to showcase the work that has been done up to now and to explain how the Center works with other business development partners to help Oklahoma based small and medium sized companies with international trade issues and to export their goods and services. Companies that were highlighted include Nameplates – Printing Product Identification, Vacuworx Global, KoffeeKingdomDirect.com and Kicker.
“The Wes Watkins Center for International Trade and Development and the Small Business Development Center at Oklahoma State University look forward to providing our services to businesses all over Oklahoma,” Cambas said. “The combined experience and expertise of our staff can work with any business and mitigate risk and maximize their international opportunities.”