The partnership was put in place last October, but its efforts have increased recently, with an agent from the U.S. Commercial Service on campus weekly, said Tomas Hult, director of the International Business Center.

“The unique thing about Michigan is we’re such a manufacturing state,” Hult said. “We’ve taken some flack for that in the economic downturn, (but there’s) a tremendous amount of potential products to be sold.”

The partnership focuses on helping small- and medium-sized companies who need resources to find out if they have a possible market internationally, he said.

A team of about 30 undergraduate and graduate students work at the center to provide an international market for interested Michigan companies, Hult said.

Then, the U.S. Commercial Service is able to find specific business contacts in individual countries and link the companies to potential buyers and sellers of their product.

The center gives the 30 student workers hands-on experience in the global business field and puts them in charge of presenting the research to the businesses themselves with faculty oversight, Hult said.

“It’s not ever going to be where they do the research and the faculty presents it,” he said.

“The students are committed and responsible to present to this CEO or that president.”

The center helped about 40 companies go international in the last year and a half, Hult said.

The top exports in Michigan include automobiles, medical products, building materials and aviation products, said Patrick McRae, an international trade specialist with the U.S. Commercial Service currently based in Grand Rapids.

President Barack Obama signed a National Export Initiative in September 2010, intending to double U.S. exports within five years. There recently has been an increase in companies considering exporting since the domestic economy has taken a downturn — which is where the partnership steps in, McRae said.

“If we can find more products overseas for our services and goods manufacturers here in Michigan, that supports jobs, (economic) growth and long-term productivity,” he said.

Tim Colonnese, the president of KTM Industries in Lansing, used the services from the U.S. Commercial Service last year to begin shipping his products overseas.

The company uses technology developed at MSU to create biodegradable and environmentally-friendly foam and other corn starch products.

They plan to ship about 100 containers of product to China this year and Colonnese said the increase in profits has been “a nice, incremental bump for the company.”

“We are getting our first order this week for Turkey and we’ve got a container going out to Australia next month,” he said.

“We still have designs on expanding into the European market — we just have to find the right partners and the right logistics.”

Michigan companies who are looking to go global can visit the Michigan Export Growth Program website at global.broad.msu.edu/megp.