Database opens new possibilities.

• Author: Breeze, Robert
• Position: Penetrating the Pacific Rim - Priming Alaska for International Trade

MEMBERSHIP HAS ITS PRIVILEGES. This has never been more so than for Alaskan business and individual members of the World Trade Center Alaska.

World Trade Center members now have access to a reservoir of comprehensive trade and commercial information in the Alaska Center for International Business (ACIB) database. For those of you seriously interested in international trade, having access to the ACIB database information is the greatest single tool that is available to you anywhere in the world on information relating to international trade, especially international trade as it relates to Alaska.

Oracle, the powerful software system that guides the ACIB database, taps dynamic and current information that enables users who have IBM, MacIntosh and Unix systems to interface and retrieve information from a wide variety of sources. Members have access to:

I Economic and financial data direct from International Monetary Fund reports;

I Import and export statistics for more than 130 countries;

Data from Eurostat that trace the value of products and their flow within the European Community nations and between the EC and other countries, with a particular concern for trade with Japan;

Detailed business opportunity listings of potential buyers with specific requests for U.S. merchandise and services;

I Daily prices from the fish markets of Japan, the Lower 48 and Europe through the Iceland-based Fishfax;

World Trade Center's Association Network trade leads, market reports, currency exchange rates and trends, commodity forward contracts, and Eurocurrency interest rates.

The ACIB database focuses on Alaskan interests - petroleum, marine products, forest products, coal and minerals. It also spans into other commodity and service arenas as well. Numerous government agencies, private industry and non-profit organizations outside of Alaska are seeking access to the ACIB database. So should you.

For those of you computer types the database makes retrieving information simple and even fun, with simple point-click commands, graphic buttons and maps. Users can create statistical charts and then can develop several kinds of graphs/charts (including 3-D) with a simple menu selection.

If you have a small Alaskan business, you have a lot to gain through accessing and using the database. Daily, real time fish prices will allow Alaskan sellers of marine products to better evaluate their competitive position on world markets. For example, World Trade Center Alaska...