The New Hampshire International Trade Resource Center (ITRC), which coordinates state efforts to enhance the New Hampshire business community’s ability to perform competitively in the global marketplace, will serve as a supporting organization for a workshop for minority- and women-owned businesses in the greater New England area conducted by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), OPIC Acting President Dr. Lawrence Spinelli announced today.

The Expanding Horizons workshop is the latest in a series that has educated more than 750 small and medium-sized business (SME) owners around the country about investment opportunities overseas and the OPIC products that can help SMEs take advantage of them. It will be held September 24 at the Westin Hotel at Copley Place in Boston.

Elizabeth J. Weber, co-founder and director of Edge Development Group, Inc. (EDG), a business consulting firm based in Ridgefield, Connecticut, will be the keynote speaker.
  
In an addition to customary workshop sessions on OPIC products such as political risk insurance and financing for SMEs, the Boston event will feature a new session on OPIC support for renewable energy and clean energy technology projects, a new area of focus for the agency.

OPIC held Expanding Horizons workshops in Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles during 2006, and in Miami, Newark, San Francisco and Houston in 2007. Combined attendance for the workshops was 765 participants, representing 22 states. Sixty-seven organizations supported the workshops.

The ITRC, managed by the state Office of International Commerce, also houses the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the U.S. Small Business Administration, Southern New Hampshire University, USDA’s Food Export program, International Trade Data Network.  The Trade Center also partners with the United States Department of Commerce and with the New Hampshire International Trade Association. The team works on local, state, federal, national, and international levels to establish a network of programs, services, and contacts to benefit and enhance the efforts of the New Hampshire business community to perform competitively in the global marketplace.

OPIC was established as an agency of the U.S. government in 1971. It helps U.S. businesses invest overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets, complements the private sector in managing risks associated with foreign direct investment, and supports U.S. foreign policy. Because OPIC charges market-based fees for its products, it operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to taxpayers.

OPIC’s political risk insurance and financing help U.S. businesses of all sizes invest in more than 150 emerging markets and developing nations worldwide. Over the agency’s 38-year history, OPIC has supported $188 billion worth of investments that have helped developing countries to generate over 830,000 host-country jobs. OPIC projects have also generated $72 billion in U.S. exports and supported more than 273,000 American jobs.

Visit OPIC on the web at www.opic.gov.