Trade Mission to Southeast Asia

The Illinois SBDC International Trade Center at Bradley University is leading a trade mission to Thailand and Vietnam that will include business-to-business matchmaking meetings with pre-screened buyers, agents, distributors and joint-venture partners with options for vetted matchmaking in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Mission dates are March 8-16 (dates will vary depending on the countries you visit).

The mission will be participating in the US Commercial Service’s Trade Winds Forum https://www.trade.gov/trade-winds. This is the U.S. government’s largest overseas business development forum and will be hosted in Bangkok, Thailand from March 13-15. On March 10th, there are options for matchmaking in Singapore, Vietnam or the Philippines. On March 16th, there will be matchmaking in Indonesia or Malaysia.

All eligible companies will receive 50%-75% reimbursement of approved travel costs and participation fees through the Illinois STEP program.

As an optional program separate from Trade Winds, we will be offering an additional day and a half of business-to-business and business-to- government matchmaking in Vietnam (March 8-9) and Thailand (March 12th), including matchmaking for sourcing and manufacturing options. *Sourcing options are not included in the Trade Winds program. If you are interested in other countries for this option, just let us know. The fee for this program is $1,400 per country.

For companies in need of more in-depth service to identify distributors, we have the SEA Change Distributor Search Program for $4,725 per country. This program is conducted by Orissa International and begins with identifying up to 25 distributors that meet your needs and will be narrowed down to a final selection of prequalified candidates for in-country introductions and up to six meetings.

In addition to the career foreign service officers that will be at the Trade Winds forum and matchmaking meetings in each country, we have assembled an impressive team that will be on the ground to advise you and help you make crucial connections.

Due to the booming economies of Southeast Asia, the current US focus on expanding trade with the region, unprecedented pent-up demand due to the pandemic, and the need to mitigate risk from over-focusing on China, this is a trade mission you don’t want to miss! Contact the SEA Change Project Director, Jim Ryan, at 309 363-5803 or jryan@bradley.edu.

SEA Change is supported by a U.S. Department of Education BIE grant.