YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A new global trade initiative that involves 10 counties in  northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania will get underway later this month, the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber announced Thursday.

The OH-PA Stateline Export Initiative is the culmination of six months of planning spearheaded by the chamber and the International Trade Assistance Center at Youngstown State University. The two organizations melded their international trade efforts to create a worldwide trade strategy that would turn the Mahoning Valley into a more formidable economic engine.

The initiative brings together economic development leaders and organizations from Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties in Ohio, and Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Lawrence, Beaver and Butler counties in Pennsylvania. The leaders plan to kick off the effort this month by surveying  all manufacturers within the 10-county area to potentially be followed by a retention and expansion visit.

“We’re continually contacted by national and international companies looking to partner with manufacturers in the Valley,’’ said Sarah Boyarko,  chamber vice president of economic development. “Information gathered in the survey will enable us to do a better job. We can no longer be fragmented. We must be proactive and organized. The creation of this plan will help us get there.”

The Valley garnered international acclaim recently when it made Global Trade magazine’s “Best Cities for Global Trade” report and when the TechBelt Initiative received the International Economic Development Council’s Bronze Award for 2013.

YSU, likewise, achieved a higher profile this year when the Youngstown Business Incubator was named the best university-based incubator in the world and the U.S. News and World Report placed the school’s undergraduate engineering program among the top 25% in the world.

"This export plan, which covers a 10-county area in two states, has a potential to fuel the overall economic development by taking advantage of the global trends and build on the momentum of leading this area from global orientation to global fluency,” said Mousa H. Kassis, adviser for the International Trade Assistance Center and a YSU economics instructor.

“Collaboration, market intelligence, realistic export plan and mechanism for implementation are crucial ingredients for success in the global market,” Kassis added. “I am proud to say that the enthusiastic collaboration from all 22 steering committee members will make it happen.”

The OH-PA  Stateline Export Initiative intends to build on various trade and business milestones, Boyarko said. Among them are its national leadership in exports growth, as cited by Business Facilities Magazine last year, and by the Brookings Institute in December 2013, and its No. 5 ranking in exports recovery by Business Facilities.

SOURCE: Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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