Database opens new possibilities.

MEMBERSHIP HAS ITS PRIVILEGES. This has never been more so than for Alaskan business and individual members of the World Trade Center Alaska.

World Trade Center members now have access to a reservoir of comprehensive trade and commercial information in the Alaska Center for International Business (ACIB) database. For those of you seriously interested in international trade, having access to the ACIB database information is the greatest single tool that is available to you anywhere in the world on information relating to international trade, especially international trade as it relates to Alaska.

Oracle, the powerful software system that guides the ACIB database, taps dynamic and current information that enables users who have IBM, MacIntosh and Unix systems to interface and retrieve information from a wide variety of sources. Members have access to:

I Economic and financial data direct from International Monetary Fund reports;

I Import and export statistics for more than 130 countries;

Data from Eurostat that trace the value of products and their flow within the European Community nations and between the EC and other countries, with a particular concern for trade with Japan;

Detailed business opportunity listings of potential buyers with specific requests for U.S. merchandise and services;

I Daily prices from the fish markets of Japan, the Lower 48 and Europe through the Iceland-based Fishfax;

World Trade Center's Association Network trade leads, market reports, currency exchange rates and trends, commodity forward contracts, and Eurocurrency interest rates.

The ACIB database focuses on Alaskan interests - petroleum, marine products, forest products, coal and minerals. It also spans into other commodity and service arenas as well. Numerous government agencies, private industry and non-profit organizations outside of Alaska are seeking access to the ACIB database. So should you.

For those of you computer types the database makes retrieving information simple and even fun, with simple point-click commands, graphic buttons and maps. Users can create statistical charts and then can develop several kinds of graphs/charts (including 3-D) with a simple menu selection.

If you have a small Alaskan business, you have a lot to gain through accessing and using the database. Daily, real time fish prices will allow Alaskan sellers of marine products to better evaluate their competitive position on world markets. For example, World Trade Center Alaska member Alaskan Gold Seafood, based in Soldotna and Anchorage, will be able to negotiate prices with its Korean buyers more strategically.

Identifying trends and foreign trade statistics can help you to appraise the general world trade environment, as well as to focus on the health of a particular market. Is disposable income increasing in Korea? Is consumer demand for housing in Japan putting more pressure on government to make reforms that might open a niche for Alaskan businesses supplying prefabricated wood housing panels? Is the increasing confidence of a unified Europe likely to enhance markets for Alaskan processed marine products such as smoked salmon, lox and wild berry products?

Database information can serve as a basis for share-the-market penetration studies, product and market development, price structure and determination of marketing policies for a company. You can compare your company's internal information with database information to measure the impact of competition and determine the standards of the market. For example, Alaska Antler Products, another World Trade Center Alaska member, can analyze ACIB database information to help determine asking prices and current market penetration for its reindeer antlers, a highly sought ingredient for Asian traditional medicines.

You might find that new export opportunities, pointing you towards a new country or product, emerge when you analyze database information. Another World Trade Center Alaska member, Telaska Satellite T.V. Systems, trading in the computer communications field, will be able to keep abreast of the latest marketing consumer trends in the ever-changing high-tech field through analysis of data available.

This information will enable Telaska to jump on the opportunity of exclusive distributorship rights for a new product. Telaska then may be able to contract a lower purchasing price with a company producing the new product before demand drives prices up, while offering it at a higher market price to consumers before increased supply forces prices down.

World Trade Center Alaska members with computers in their offices and their homes can use modems to gain direct access to the ACIB database. A world of information will be at your fingertips, and information is the greatest asset you have in successfully becoming involved in international trade.

If you are interested in learning more about the World Trade Center Alaska and the ACIB database, call the World Trade Center Alaska at 561-1615.