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| Wednesday, September
18, 2002 |
Issue 42
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VOLUME 2 ISSUE 18
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WELCOME
http://www.fita.org/
Here's your latest issue of
Really Useful Sites for International Trade
Professionals. This free bi-weekly newsletter reviews
useful Web sites from the Web Resources database at FITA's International Trade/
Import-Export Portal at www.fita.org, an excellent
source for trade leads, news, events, and a link library
of 7,000+ sites related to international trade.
My name is John McDonnell, and for years I've
been writing about useful Web sites for businesspeople,
in various publications. Now I've focused on
international trade, using my Web research skills to
find sites that are useful for international
businesspeople, and some sites that are just plain fun
for anyone.
Here are the
sites:
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OUR
FEATURED REGIONAL SITE -- SOURCES FOR ASIA-PACIFIC
RESEARCH
http://www.asia-pacific.com/links.htm
Want to plug in to hundreds of
content-rich sites about business in the Far East? Check
out Sources for
Asia-Pacific Business Research at
www.asia-pacific.com/links.htm. Here you'll find links
to sites with country and company profiles, bank
ratings, stock exchanges, market research, trade
reports, maps, guides to doing business in the region,
travel tips, and much more. I can't imagine doing
business in the Asia Pacific region without visiting
this site first.
There are lots more links to Asia at the FITA site.
Go to FITA's International
Trade Web Resources at www.fita.org/webindex, click
on Regional Resources and Multi-Lateral Trading Areas in
the left column or "Search by Country or Region" in the
right column, then scroll down to Asia and click on
"Asia" in the drop-down box. Or simply type "Asia" in
the search box at http://fita.org/.
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THE
FITA BUY/SELL EXCHANGE
http://fita.worldbid.com/
FITA and Worldbid.com have
launched a new International Buy/Sell exchange. The FITA Buy/Sell
Exchange at fita.worldbid.com is FITA's new
business-to-business marketplace that helps your company
find more business by delivering tender opportunities,
RFQ's and qualified offers to buy and sell. You will
have access to a global network of affiliated trade
sites that work together to bring together businesses
across borders. Take a look!
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TWO
GEOGRAPHY SITES
http://www.geographyiq.com/
I always loved the study of
geography. I used to enjoy looking at maps and imagining
what life was like in other countries. If you're like
me, you'll love GeographyIQ at
www.geographyiq.com, a site with tons of information
about every country in the world. I particularly liked
the ranking data, which shows where countries rank in
terms of land mass, population, birth rate, imports and
exports, and even categories like how many television
sets are owned.
Another site with lots of information about countries
worldwide is MSU Global Access
at www.msuglobalaccess.net.This is an annotated collection
of over 5,000 sites about the regions and peoples
of the world. It's searchable by country, thematic
area (environment, development, travel, etc.) constituency
group (teachers, businesspeople, etc.), resource type
(maps, news sources, study abroad programs), language,
and keyword. There are also travel precautions and
September 11 information links.
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INTERNATIONAL CRIME STATISTICS
http://www.interpol.int/Public/Statistics/ICS/Default.asp
I've never been to Colombia,
but if I ever go there I'll keep on my guard, because
according to International
Crime Statistics at
www.interpol.int/Public/Statistics/ICS/Default.asp,
a site run by Interpol, I have a much greater chance of
being murdered there than in the U.S. It's tricky making
comparisons like this, of course, and the Interpol home
page warns users of the unreliability of crime
statistics because of differences in the way police
departments report crime, etc., but this is still an
interesting place to visit if you want to get an idea of
the extent of crime in various countries. Just click on
"Countries list" and then pick the country you're
interested in. You need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader
software to view the
statistics.
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START-UP KITS
http://www.entrepreneur.com/toolkit
My favorite boss is me; I'm a
self-employed writer, and I enjoy it more than any job
I've ever had. However, it's not easy getting started as
an entrepreneur, and I wish I had Entrepreneur.com's
Start-Up Kits at www.entrepreneur.com/toolkit when I
started out years ago. These kits offer industry,
market, and operations information for over 40 types of
businesses. The one on starting an import/export
business is especially good. The site includes comments
from successful entrepreneurs, suggestions for
researching business opportunities and creating a
business plan, and links to associations and franchises.
It also features an e- mail service where you can get
expert advice about every aspect of starting your own
business.
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If you'd like to search back issues of Really
Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals,
there's a search page at http://fita.org/useful/search.html.
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you'd like to see all back issues of Really Useful
Sites for International Trade Professionals, the full
list is at http://www.fita.org/useful/archives.html.
Please feel free to pass this
newsletter on to others.
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Full archives
can be found at http://fita.org/useful/archives.html.
Really Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals can be
searched at
http://fita.org/useful/search.html
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