In his introductory comments, Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty urged business owners in the audience for the opening session of World Trade Day 2002 to take a closer look at the export opportunities that exist for Rhode Island companies all over the world.
"There is a whole world out there of people who are willing to trade," he said. "We should not look at these people as a threat, but as an opportunity."
Many Rhode Island businesses are already doing so – Ocean State businesses exported $1.2 billion in goods last year, a 7 percent increase over the previous year. It’s a fact Neil Steinberg, president and managing director of Fleet Bank Rhode Island, attributes to the impact of the Internet.
"It’s no longer little Rhode Island with everybody doing business within Rhode Island or New England," he said. "We’re doing business all over the world."
Bryant College hosted the World Trade Day on May 30, drawing 400 people – the most attendees ever for the nearly 20-year-old event. This year the event looked at "The European Union, 1992-2002 – Ten Years Later," to focus on the evolution of the European Union (EU) since its inception in 1992 and present-day business opportunities within its 15 countries.
Each of the EU’s 15 countries was represented at the conference.
The day-long event featured keynote addresses from Petros Sourmelis, counselor for trade and commercial affairs at the European Delegation in Washington, D.C.; Roger Axtell, best-selling author and former vice president of worldwide marketing for Parker Pen Company; Jaymin B. Patel, senior vice president and chief financial officer of GTECH Holdings Corporation; and Thomas Strauss, national director, eastern region, Commercial Service Office of Domestic Operations.
Breakout sessions covered such topics as forming strategic alliances with European partners, tips for entering the European market and how the adoption of the Euro has changed doing business with Europe.
Sponsors for the event included Beacon Mutual Insurance, Fleet, GTECH Corporation, Lamar Outdoor Advertising, Providence Business News, The Providence Journal, Verizon, Northeast Export Magazine, and Tillinghast, Licht, Perkins, Smith and Cohen.
To provide a framework for the day, Sourmelis presented a history of the EU, and called the introduction of the Euro "the most important symbol of European unity we have introduced to our citizens . . . One can no longer think of Europe without the Euro."
Sourmelis said that initially there were doubts about how the Euro would be accepted by the EU’s citizenry, but that he felt the reaction, overall, has been positive. The EU wants to enlarge the Euro area to include the U.K., Sweden and Denmark, and hopes to have as many as 10 new member states by June 2004, Sourmelis said. Additions could include Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia and Cyprus.
"The Impact of the Euro" session explored the topic from a financial perspective.
Luis De Velasco, the New York-based trade commissioner of Spain, stressed that the Euro is at the center of what is more of a monetary union than an economic one.
"In the field of economic development, there is no one single corporation (within the ERU)," he said.
The Euro has experienced a fairly steady upward rise over the past two months – and is currently up more than 6 percent against the U.S. dollar, due to dollar depreciation.
Matthew O. Lewis, manager, Ruesch International, predicted that in the coming months, an uncertain economic climate will keep the dollar vulnerable. But Lewis believes that the coming quarters will see the dollar outperforming the Euro, and that given a climate where there are so many factors – terrorism, war, worker productivity and energy prices among them – driving the currency market, the dollar/Euro balance should continue to be interesting to watch.
"This has been a very long process," he said. "We can only start to imagine the impact of this on the world economy to come."
Roger Axtell, former vice president of worldwide marketing for Parker Pen Company and a best-selling author of eight books about international business, offered a humorous look at the sometimes confusing conflict of cultures.
Based on personal experiences from his travels around the globe for Parker, Axtell’s presentation traced the various meanings of common gestures, slang, buzzwords and body language in different counties in an effort to explain why the unfamiliar can so easily lead to misunderstandings.
As an example, Axtell told a story of a visit to Saudi Arabia. Axtell was taken by surprise when a Saudi business associate – a full-grown man – grabbed his hand and started leading him down the street, hand-in-hand. While not a common gesture among business partners in the U.S., handholding is a gesture of respect in Saudi Arabia.
"These things happen when we least expect it, and that’s the point," Axtell said. "All of these things are at the surface of a culture . . . But it’s just at the surface, and we’re thrown off by that . . . Once you get past that first layer, you realize that we’re more alike than unalike."
