Business Opportunities and Trade Shows

Developmental Banks
Trade Shows

Development Banks are, by their nature, interested in encouraging trade and industry in the parts of the world they serve. Some of the websites for the various banks have a tremendous amount of information about their member countries. They also frequently have procurement notices and business opportunities.

African Development Bank Group Not as much information as some banks about the countries they serve but there are links to business opportunities with bank projects.
Asian Development Bank The website for this bank has links to a tremendous amount of information. Country information is very complete. Business Opportunities are found under the main heading "About ADB", then "Opportunities."
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Not sure why this is a .com intead of a .org but it is owned by 61 countries and 2 intergovernmental agencies. The member countries are in central Europe and central Asia, primarily countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union. The country pages have links to current news and descriptions of projects. There are also pages devoted to business segments. The "Working With Us" homepage leads to their list of procurement opportunities."
Inter-American Development Bank Serves South America and the Caribbean. Each country has a page with a brief overview of the economy but there is much more information available in the Research section. The Projects link at the top of the page goes directly to a searchable database of projects that the Bank has funded. The link to Procurement on this page will lead to another searchable database for business opportunities related to the projects. RSS feeds for automatic notification of procurement notices are available.
Islamic Development Bank As its name suggests, this bank's member countries are predominantly Muslim countries located in all parts of the world. There are lists of economic indicators for member countries but not a lot of member specific information. The "Opportunities" link has a list of current requests for bids.
Export.gov The U.S. Government has resources world-wide in Embassies and Consulates that help identify promising leads for U.S. exporters. Use the navigation column on the left to access the following options: 1. Trade Leads Database Contains pre-screened, time-sensitive leads and Government Tenders gathered through U.S. Commercial Service offices around the world. You can search leads and receive notification when new leads are posted. 2. World Bank and Multilateral Development Banks Opportunities Billions of dollars worth of international projects are funded every year through the World Bank and the various multilateral development banks (MDBs). You can search for them in the Trade Leads Database above.

The task of international marketing research is mainly to determine if a company should go international or remain domestic. Companies will:

- Assess global market demand
- Determine which market to enter
- Determine how to enter the markets
- Determine how to market in target areas

In addition, attending trade shows of the industry is a great way to gather more information about it. You can identify major players, view the products, accumulate product literature, and meet representatives of many of the companies involved. Lists of exhibitors and lists of attendees are also great tools. Many major shows can be identified online through:

Export.gov
Slide over the Opportunities tab at the top to view worldwide Trade Events listed by the government.
EIN Newsdesk
A news monitoring service that tracks thousands of websites which provide news by country and topic. At the bottom of most EIN newsdesk pages is a collection of links leading to various tools. One of the sections is Events & Conferences. Clicking on the Search Events link takes you to a Search Conferences page, where you can search for conferences by date, category, country , and city.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
In addition to so many other features of this resource, you can also find sources for trade and development. In order to search ONLY for business opportunities, follow the directions below:

1. Highlight News
2. Enter your search terms. Type the word, industry followed by your industry in parenthesis. For example, industry (automotive)
3. Select your date range using the down arrow.
4. Search.

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4. In the results page, use the column on the left to Narrow your results further.
5. Under Publication Type, select:Business Opportunities.

6. Continue using other segments to narrow further. For example, under Subjects, select: automotive.