TradePort: Bridging International Business Opportunities Between the U.S. and Spain Conference

MBITA Represents Tradeport.org at "BRIDGING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN THE U.S. AND SPAIN" Conference

Santa Cruz, CA – March 10, 2005 -- The Monterey Bay International Trade Association (MBITA)
(www.mbita.org), a non-profit public/private partnership dedicated to promoting small to mid-sized businesses in the global marketplace, today announced its participation in a conference at Harvard University called ‘Bridging International Business Opportunities between the U.S. and Spain’, on May 15-18, 2005.

MBITA manages the TradePort.org website for the L.A. Chamber of Commerce (LACC) and the Bay Area Economic Forum (BAEF) and will represent the ‘California-Spain’ initiative on TradePort to support California companies export to Spain providing free marketing and industry reports on various Spanish industries provided by the Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) in Madrid, Spain

"BRIDGING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN THE U.S. AND SPAIN" is the Third Edition of the Executive Program at Harvard and is a three-day program to help bridge the cultural gap that divides the U.S and Spain, a key trading partner in Europe.

This unique program targets American and Spanish managers who are currently working in both markets or looking to explore opportunities in either country. It is specifically designed to help understand the pitfalls and privileges of doing business in either market. The Executive Program will offer specific knowledge of how the corporate culture of each country differs from the other and how to make those differences work to their company's advantage.

The mix of executives from both nations offers an excellent opportunity for managers to learn from each other's varied experiences as well as from the faculty, who bring a wealth of international business talent to the program.

Today, as never before, U.S and Spanish interests are closely intertwined. The countries' foreign policies and national objectives track closely, they share similarly sized Spanish-speaking population -the number of Spanish-speakers in the U.S. is currently 35 million, just below Spain's population of 40 million -and business ties are booming. Consider these statistics:

Last year, the vibrant Spanish economy -the eighth largest economy in the OECD and the fifth largest in the European Community -exported nearly 6 billion dollars in goods and services to the U.S. A decade-long economic boom, marked by bullish business confidence, has lured more than 600 U.S. companies to establish subsidiaries in Spain. Add that to 200 Spanish companies with subsidiaries in the U.S and the more than 13,500 companies that have relevant economic and trade ties with the U.S.

For U.S. companies, Spain offers a wealth of opportunities and a chance to gain foothold in one of the world's most important economic zones, the European Union. For Spanish companies, the U.S. continues to offer the enticing challenge of doing business in the world's largest single market.

The Executive Program is supported by Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard, the American Embassy in Spain, the American Chamber of Commerce in Spain, as well as others financial institutions.

The Real Colegio Complutense is non-profit organization established in 1990 by Complutense University of Madrid, in cooperation with Harvard University. The organization was created to foster scientific and academic exchanges between Harvard and Complutense as well as other prominent universities in Spain.

For more information and registration, please visit http://www.servicomspain-usa.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MBITA Represents Tradeport.org at "BRIDGING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN THE U.S. AND SPAIN" Conference