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Saxony-Anhalt 2014 Foreign Trade Conference

Mercateo as a model for successful global business

Foreign Trade Conference 2014
Panel discussion at the Saxony-Anhalt Foreign Trade Conference 2014 with Mercateo's Director Peter Ledermann (on the right)

At the “Außenwirtschaftstag Sachsen-Anhalt 2014” (Saxony-Anhalt Foreign Trade Conference 2014), the Director Peter Ledermann talked about the company’s international success, and about difficulties encountered on the road to that success. With reports from practice like this, the event organisers sought to encourage other businesses from the region to expand their business models to the international stage.

On 19 November 2014, Mercateo presented its model at the foreign trade conference in Magdeburg. The director Peter Ledermann talked about the company’s development, and in particular about internationalisation. The event was aimed primarily at medium-sized business and was organised by Saxony-Anhalt’s Ministry of Science and Economic Affairs in partnership with the chambers of trade, the chambers of industry and commerce and the Saxony-Anhalt’s regional association of wholesale and export service provider (Landesverband des Groß- und Außenhandel-Dienstleistungen Sachsen-Anhalt). The aim was to show medium-sized businesses in particular the route to international success and highlight the funding available.

One company from the region that is already successfully operating on the international market is Mercateo. In the practice-related session, Peter Ledermann talked about the company’s route to success and the obstacles that they had to overcome. “Over recent years, we have gained a lot of experience in how a medium-sized business can succeed and establish itself at an international level,” said Mercateo’s Director. “We now want to share this knowledge with other companies from the region. It is important to us that Saxony-Anhalt grows stronger as a business location: Mercateo wants to support the state’s new foreign trade focus. It was therefore with great pleasure that I accepted this invitation.”

A key topic at the event was the future role of the European Regional Development Fund. The speakers included Hartmut Möllring, the Minister of Science and Economic Affairs for the State of Saxony-Anhalt. In his speech, Möllring set out Saxony-Anhalt’s new focus on foreign trade for the 2014-2020 EU funding period. Hans-Joachim Hennings, Head of Research, Innovation and European Affairs at the Ministry of Science and Economic Affairs, then summarised the current situation in foreign trade and spoke about the challenges before bring the event to a close with a look ahead to the next few years.