One of the questions posed in one of the unit 4 readings was “What can we do to help these developing nations?” Well, there is one organization in Michigan that I believe is helping these developing nations, while helping Michigan as well.
A few months back, I went to a Global Sustainability conference, and one of the discussion panels I listened to was about doing business in India. The third speaker of this industry panel was Laura Deierlein, International Trade Manager for Business Attraction/Export Division for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). This company is set up in five different regions of Michigan. Their goal is to help companies in Michigan begin doing business overseas. There are different managers that each focus on a country, her focus is India. They are focused on teaching companies how to start doing business overseas in India and how to export goods to businesses in India. She discussed how there is an insane amount of exporting we do in Michigan due to our location right on the Great Lakes and how her company is working to make that number grow.
Not only is her company helping Michigan grow and globalize, it also helping build strong business relationship in foreign countries. It seems to me that this could definitely be helping develop these foreign countries. I think what the MEDC is doing is a great thing not only for Michigan, but also for the less developed countries that they are working with.