Common export promotion services are well-established, cover a wide range of functions, and are generally perceived to be effective. Most of these services are delivered by federal government and state (or state-funded) organizations. The role of regional EDOs, and whether they can be effective, depends on their size/scale, expertise, and coordination with the rest of the export ecosystem.
Effective regional EDOs collaborate and coordinate with other organizations in the export ecosystem, and strive to fill in gaps and avoid developing programs and services that duplicate existing state and federal programs. An important role for all regional EDOs (whether large scale or small and resource-constrained) is connecting exporters with existing state and federal export promotion program (see more information on common federal and state export assistance programs).
Smaller scale regional EDOs (and some smaller states) generally do not have the scale, funding, or expertise to effectively provide their own export promotion services, and as a result tend to rely on federal and state partners.
Some larger regional EDOs, often located in major metro areas, have the scale and expertise to offer (or take the lead) on their own export promotion programs. To be effective these efforts should be tightly coordinated with state and federal trade programs.
The sections below provide more information on the role of small and large/major metro regional EDOs in providing export assistance: