IRETI will have nonprofit, for-profit, and community-outreach components. Minnesota State University will partner with the University of New York in Albany and the University of Georgia to help Swedish companies that wish to move to the United States by providing applied research, certification testing, and work force development. The universities will also be responsible for community outreach and education efforts.
Mankato will be the site of the first ever Bioenergy Days, a conference in September that will bring together researchers, businesses, and the community to discuss renewable energy needs and ways technologies can be applied in Minnesota.
IRETI’s for-profit component is a technology transfer system facilitated through Äfab, a sustainable energy consulting company in Lidköping, Sweden. Äfab will provide an international business support center and services for companies making the move to the U.S. market. The BioBusiness Alliance will assist in introducing Swedish renewable energy companies to U.S. businesses and communities in the hopes that they’ll form relationships and partnerships.
Wahlstrom is intent on making any Swedish company that decides to establish a facility in Minnesota successful, “because it means local economic development and local access to technologies that will help our people reduce their dependence on petroleum-based products.”
An economic development employee from Växjö is slated to speak at International Bioenergy Days and to meet with representatives from several Minnesota cities, Wahlstrom adds: “They will begin to talk about how they did it [in Växjö] and how we can do it here—one city at a time.”
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• How can you get paid for your exports on time? The Manufacturing and Services unit of the U.S. International Trade Administration has published an updated version of the Trade Finance Guide: A Quick Reference for U.S. Exporters, to answer this and other questions posed by small and midsize firms. The guide includes coverage of secure ways to transfer money between American and foreign companies using letters of credit and documentary collections between banks. The pros and cons of export credit insurance are covered, in addition to managing foreign exchange risk when receiving payments in local currencies.
—Andrea Wagenknecht
• Tourism is up nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Bloomington’s Mall of America (MOA) is luring increasing numbers of international visitors. Three million foreign shoppers made the trek to the MOA in 2007—a 10 percent increase over 2006. Erica Dao, media relations specialist for the mall, says international visitors spend on average $260 per visit to the mall compared to $110 spent on average by local shoppers. She credits the strength of European and Canadian currencies against the dollar for the surge in international visitors: During the first half of 2008, visits increased by another 5 percent.
—Katie Harholdt
