The United States launched a global Internet portal in Asia today aimed at boosting trade by linking American exporters with business partners around the world.
BuyUSA.com, created by the US Department of Commerce and computer giant IBM, allows American companies to find international buyers and distributors for their products, officials said.
Jerry Mitchell, acting director general of the US Commercial Service, told a news conference in Manila via video link-up from Washington that the new electronic marketplace would boost trade although its larger aim was to help American exporters.
The portal would be formally introduced in Manila on Thursday at CommAsia 2001, a regional exhibition covering the telecommunications, broadcast, electronics and information technology fields.
Mitchell said Washington would be rolling out BuyUSA.com in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia, among other economies in the region.
The website's launch comes at a time when the United States faces a slowdown in economic growth and a burgeoning trade deficit.
Export-led Asian nations are also worried that a fall-off in exports to the United States would dampen their economic growth.
But Mitchell said the new portal was a win-win formula for both the United States and Asian economies.
"If we can continue to generate exports to Asia and elsewhere, then our US companies are certainly going to import more as well," Mitchell said.
"Everyone recognises that trade is two-way and you can't prosper in one country without prospering in the rest of the world," he explained.
Dan Gupta, IBM's programme director of global trade services, said the US economic slowdown had prodded American companies, particularly small and medium-sized ones, to explore new export markets and expand existing ones.
This would open up opportunities for the rest of the world too, he said.
AFP