Trade and Enterprise Development

What We Do >> Practices >> Trade and Enteprise Development

IESC’s trade and enterprise development practice strengthens industry sectors and value chains, fosters market linkages and builds the capacity of micro, small and medium enterprises as well as business support organizations. We work to enhance competitiveness from the national to the firm level; improve the business enabling environment; increase domestic, regional and international sales; create jobs; attract new investment; and reduce poverty.

Trade: We support public and private sectors in countries around the world in complying with and taking advantage of bilateral Free Trade Agreements and other international and regional trade opportunities. We also assist with preparing for World Trade Organization (WTO) accession. We're specialists in helping countries take advantage of Free Trade Agreements with the United States. Our services include a wide array of firm to sector level technical assistance; market research; facilitation of trade missions and trade events; support to trade associations; and the creation of sustainable linkages to buyers and global markets.

Enterprise Development: Direct firm level assistance has long been a key element in our success at generating increased sales, exports and employment for both high potential and vulnerable industry sectors. We are well known for providing successful technical assistance at a reasonable cost by using volunteer experts from our proprietary database of thousands of professional and industry-specific resources. Working alongside our trained professional staff and consultants, these resources are well supported and well qualified to meet the challenges facing our clients in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. We foster enterprise development via training in basic business planning; developing strategically-focused business thinking; and improving core business operations and productivity. We also assist and consult on other business functions -- such as product design, development, and marketing.

In addition to technical assistance and training provided by staff and experts, our programs often include ways to help clients offset the costs of taking risks in new markets. That can involve the utilization of a reimbursable cost-sharing grant fund. Our approach to grants allows firms to apply for funds to match the contribution that firms themselves commit to undertake various activities for growth, including technical assistance consultancies, trade show participation, product development, and market identification.