Ambassador of India visits Pittsburgh

Ambassador of India, Meera Shankar is welcomed to Pittsburgh for a two day visit:

On April 28th I had the opportunity to attend a meeting with TiE of Pittsburgh where Ambassador Shankar was speaking. This intimate breakfast of about 60 people enabled me to find out more about the relations between India and the United States.

Ambassador Shankar also visited the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and spoke to an audience of many. India and the US share about 25.5 Million in trade and India looks forward to continuing our good relations. Indian businesses are interested in investing in American companies here helping growth in both countries. The main national priority for India is to achieve social economic transformation and is inclusive. The foreign policy should help create an environment that strengthens trade and technical collaboration. The global downturn has not affected India as much as other countries. Exports were getting constrained and growth dipped to 6.7% and now the Indian economic growth has jumped to 8% in 2009 and 8.6% in 2010. The target for India is to achieve an average growth of 9 to 9.5%.

Pittsburgh is home to a vibrant Indian community that has played a key role in the city’s development as a professional, high tech economy. According to recent statistics, there are 28 local companies with operations in India in the Pittsburgh region, 6 Indian-owned firms, and 10 of the 25 largest Pittsburgh area minority-owned companies are owned by individuals from India or of Indian ancestry.

The Ambassador’s visit is a valuable opportunity to highlight Pittsburgh’s growing role in the global economy. Since hosting the G20 in 2009, the world has been watching Pittsburgh. The city was recently ranked as a leading location for future international investment by fDi magazine, a publication of the London-based Financial Times. Pittsburgh was ranked first overall in the large cities
category in the fDi 2011/2012 American Cities of the Future. (cited from recent PR for World Affairs Council)

White House

I am honored to be invited to the White House Roundtable tomorrow in Pittsburgh. I hope we find these officials of the White House enacting change quickly. I will post about it Friday!

Look who is talking about All Clear!

Linda Handley of Building Bridges and I talked last week about the impact translations will make on revenues for manufacturers. She thought is significant enough to post on her website blog. Building Bridges is a non-profit started late 2010 to help small businesses learn of the many resources in the Pittsburgh region, PA state, and Federal that can help grow a company with marketing and business advice, workshops and counselors. Check them out! A seminar is happening on April 28th and over 160 have already registered. Click on the title to visit the blog at Building Bridges and learn more about this organization.
Cheers, Linda

Free Trade Agreement with Columbia

It is exciting to see the free trade agreement with Columbia happen. Our manufacturers now have easy access to export to Columbia. NAFTA has enabled easy shipping to Mexico and Canada thus becoming the two biggest areas of export for US Manufacturers. The free trade agreement with Columbia opens another country to us. Projections are at least $1 Billion in exports will be created from this agreement. I look forward to helping our manufacturers break into that market with multilingual websites, marketing materials and other documents. Why export - why would you say no to a sale, a new market, increased revenues! Do not ask should we export but how quickly can we export!

Have a great week and I will keep you updated on what is happening in our country and with All Clear Translations.

Linda

India as a Global Market

Those companies looking at hot markets need to look no further than India. With a growing middle class and per capita income this country is an opportunity waiting to happen. This will mean increased sales to US and European companies from Nabisco to Napa Valley Vintners.

For example, wine, once thought of as a "ladies" drink is being consumed much more. So much so that Napa Vintners win important protection in India. NVV Board President Bruce Cakebread, "This landmark protection is critical to our wineries as India is an important emerging market."

Oreo cookies are entering the market based on a 21% growth in filled cookie sales there and the Indian sweet tooth.

Export growth will not occur without localization. Indian consumers are emotional buyers of such goods and base purchases on religion, festivals, and regional preferences. The Indian consumer is diverse so we must localize regionally to win this savvy consumer. Simply put localization will clearly create growth, do your research and create a winning strategy, the ROI will be great!

All Clear Translations is in the news, read the article - click here

5 Key Reasons to Create Your Multilingual Site

5 Key Reasons to Offer Multilingual Websites
1. Up to 40% increase in sales revenues can be obtained with just one added language
2. Over 75% of web users browse in their native language only.
3. Your Client is already thinking about it or their competition is!
4. World’s Fastest Growing Markets are not in the US
Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Nigeria, South Africa
Based on projected growth, infrastructure investment of over $3 trillion (5years) Export Import Bank Strategic Plan 2010-15
5. Your Value has now risen by increasing your client’s revenues dramatically!

Example: ROI potential is HUGE (based on a manufacturer here in Pittsburgh) A $25 million company adds Spanish for Mexico to their website and sales increased over 30% to $32.5 M at a negligible cost. ($10,000 cost for the Spanish website)

5 Key Reasons to partner with All Clear Translations
1. Opportunity – uncover new markets and new business opportunities through Partnering with A.C.T.
2. Trend Setting - Your client stays in front of the trend for export growth by using our innovative service.
3. Expertise -You are the expert utilizing the A.C.T. team of Software, IT, Graphic, and Linguistic professionals.
4. Innovation – we have experts in language automation from CMU, Microsoft Gold Partners that are award winning in the field and various expert linguists that are matched with your client’s market needs.
5. Totality – with A.C.T. you implement a complete Global Strategy offering high potential results.