Wisconsin businesses are getting a helping hand when it comes to learning how to export their goods.
The state Commerce Department says its new Global Partnership Services program will increase jobs by helping companies increase their exports. Secretary Dick Leinenkugel says the program is designed to do outreach to companies, as part of an effort to teach them how to export goods and reach worldwide markets.
Leinenkugel said the program will help local colleges train businesses on the A-B-C's of exporting. He says the state can't sit by and be idle, when some businesses may need the help in learning how to take their goods overseas.
He says Wisconsin has products that other countries want, such as paper and Ginseng.
Leinenkugel says the GPS program won't impact an already strained state budget, since it will use existing staff.
The state set an exporting record in 2007 when it sold $19 billion in agricultural and manufactured goods to overseas countries. Early estimates predict the state could break the record in 2008 by exporting $20 billion.
AUDIO: Matt Lehman reports (MP3 :41)
