PA Export Program Recognized as One of Nation’s Best by U.S. Government

Envoy Helps PA Companies Build Bilingual Sales Presence in International Markets

Harrisburg – A state program designed to help Pennsylvania companies tap new international markets has received one of four national “Innovation Awards” from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Austin Burke announced today.

Pennsylvania’s Envoy program, which started in 2007, is designed to increase participating companies’ global competitiveness with low-cost, low-risk, and high-performance bilingual sales and marketing strategies.  Envoy services vary but they include country-based specialists who implement each company’s sales plan, pursue leads, and develop a customer base.

“Pennsylvania designed Envoy after listening to companies that said these services would be invaluable,” Burke said. “What we’ve developed under the leadership of Governor Rendell is a benchmark program that other states and the nation are now following and from which companies are greatly benefitting.”

Operated by the Center for Trade Development within DCED’s Office of International Business Development, Pennsylvania’s Envoy program won the Economic Development Administration’s “Innovation in Global Export Promotion” award.

“Envoy has accomplished what companies have wanted it to accomplish, including bolstering their competitiveness abroad and creating higher skilled, higher paying jobs in Pennsylvania,” said DCED Deputy Secretary for International Business Development Wilfred Muskens.

Envoy is operating in 12 of the 23 countries where Pennsylvania’s international trade reps work, including South Africa, Mexico, India, China, Brazil, and France.

“By partnering with the Pennsylvania Center in Shanghai and enrolling in the Envoy program, we have developed a customer base that continues to expand and, better yet, we are seeing repeat orders,” said Brian A. McKean, president, Titan Tool Company, Fairview.

For more information, visit www.newpa.com or www.eda.gov.