In today’s highly competitive global marketplace, Ohio must extend its economic reach, building relationships and seizing opportunities on a global scale.
The Global Markets Division is extending Ohio’s economic reach into the global marketplace. Ohio’s trade managers and network of international offices – in Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Chile, Brazil, Israel, South Africa, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and India – promote the exports of Ohio goods and services and work to solidify Ohio’s position as a premier location for investment.
At any given time, a Global Markets trade manager may be meeting with a manufacturer in Mansfield, Ohio or a business in South Africa – all with the goal of strengthening Ohio’s economy. A number of Ohio’s most important business partnerships were initiated by a phone call or meeting through the Global Markets Division. We are committed to continuing this success with our new Targeted Global Markets Strategy, where we are developing country-specific strategies focusing on key opportunities in our state’s targeted industries.
With the fourth largest active rail line and airport access in the nation, Ohio’s private, public, and international transportation lines connect businesses with the needs of a changing global economy. Ohio is within one day’s drive of 62 percent of all U.S. manufacturing facilities and within 600 miles of 59.5 percent of the U.S. population, making Ohio the ideal location for domestic and international business.
And the numbers speak for themselves: Ohio is the seventh-largest exporting state in the United States and exported $45 billion in 2008, a 7 percent increase from 2007. Ohio is the only state in the nation to see an increase in exports every year since 1998.
This important division works to bring in investment for Ohioans: 600 foreign-based corporations from 28 countries are operating in the state with more than 1,000 facilities employing between 180,000 to 200,000 in Ohio.
Every day, the Global Markets Division is searching for new trends and developing new relationships, whether at a trade fair in Hannover, Germany, a seminar in Monterrey, Mexico, or through discussions with the CEOs of multinational companies that benefit the export strategies for Ohio’s businesses and cultivate direct foreign investment.
