All Services

Trade & Investment

Are you a government agency looking to attract foreign direct investment? Do you want to help companies in your city, region or country grow their exports? Or perhaps you need on-the-ground support in Asia, Europe or North America for VIP missions, trade shows or matchmaking events?

We can help. Our specialist, in-country teams deliver a comprehensive range of trade and investment services, providing you with a local presence in the region’s leading economies.

To discuss how we can help your trade and investment strategy, please get in touch:

Global: Richard Lyle | | richard.lyle@intralinkgroup.com

US: Micah Hostetter | | micah.hostetter@intralinkgroup.com

EMEA: Gavin Cleary | | g avin.cleary@intralinkgroup.com

Our services include:

Inward investment

We will help you attract international investors. Whether it’s to establish regional headquarters, R&D facilities or a manufacturing base, we will draw on our extensive networks and commercial experience to entice the best organisations to invest in your country, region or city.

Trade support

We will grow your exports by helping companies in your region understand their priority markets and find local importers and distributors. We will also support companies that want to visit new global markets, undertake marketing campaigns or exhibit at overseas trade shows.

Overseas missions

Through our specialist teams located in Asia, Europe and North America, we support government visits to these regions, including trade missions, trade shows, business matchmaking events and VIP visits.

Market reports

We can produce in-depth market reports about the hottest topics and opportunities in export markets. See these examples of our market reports for government trade bodies. The full set can be found here.

If you’d like to discuss how we can support your trade and investment strategy, get in touch.

"Intralink has been a dependable partner for the entire embassy, bringing exceptional project execution skills to complex research challenges. Our relationship is highly valuable."

Cindy Kim, Head of Trade, British Embassy Seoul

Our Trade & Investment Team

Richard Lyle

Global Lead Email

Richard heads up our Trade & Investment team. He has overseen the trade promotion activities of several US states and Canadian provinces - including Missouri, Washington and Alberta - as well as the national EDOs of Israel, Canada and the Republic of Ireland. Prior to Intralink, Richard worked for UK Trade & Investment, helping British companies develop their business interests in Japan and Japanese companies expand their operations in the UK.

Micah Hostetter

Director, Americas Email

Micah heads our Trade & Investment team in North America. He joined Intralink in 2015 and was based out of our Shanghai office for more than eight years. During his time in China, he served as the local representative for numerous US states, spearheading their FDI and trade initiatives in the country. He has also led projects for European and APAC EDOs in the region. Micah moved back to the US in 2023 and is located in Virginia.

Gavin Cleary

Director, EMEA Email

Gavin leads our Trade & Investment team in EMEA. He joined Intralink in 2024 having previously worked with many EDOs and IPAs at the country, region and city level across the UK, Europe, North America and Asia. He was previously Chief Commercial Officer for Financial Services at UK Trade & Investment (now the UK’s Department for Business & Trade) as well as Director for UK & Ireland for Enterprise Florida (now Select Florida).

Client stories

Client:State of South Carolina

Territories:China, Taiwan, Korea & Japan

Objectives:Attract FDI

Targets:Potential investors in advanced manufacturing, automotive & energy

Results:Secured multiple investments by a Japanese utility

We’ve been the trade and investment representative for the State of South Carolina in China and Taiwan since 2015, Korea since 2017 and Japan since 2019.

Our work includes FDI lead generation, matchmaking, attending trade shows, representing the State on the Council of American States (Japan), organising multi-track trade and investment missions, group events and delegation briefings, plus email marketing and interfacing with SelectUSA, USCS, AmCham and other multipliers.

Territory:Korea

Objectives:Market opportunity whitepapers

Targets:Key growth sectors in South Korea

Results:14 (and counting) whitepapers on how to expand in South Korea

We have been commissioned by the UK’s Department for International Trade to produce a series of reports on opportunities for British exporters to South Korea.

These focus on priority growth sectors including IoT, AI, information security, data analytics, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, digital health and ecommerce.

The reports are free to download.

Client:State of Maryland

Territory:Japan

Objectives:Trade & export support

Targets:Energy, life sciences and defence sectors

Results:Fast-tracked progress in Japan for multiple firms

We are the trade representative for the State of Maryland in Japan. In this role, we’ve undertaken market research, partner search and business matching initiatives for many Maryland-based companies in the IT, biotech, medical device and food & beverage sectors amongst others.

We’ve also supported multiple in person and virtual trade missions to Japan and Korea, arranging matchmaking meetings for attending Maryland based companies..

Territories:Japan & Korea

Objectives:Lead generation for FDI missions

Targets:Potential investors in 10 key Canadian cities

Results:$68M development of a 65,000-solar panel and battery storage farm by Samsung Renewable Energy in Summerside, Prince Edward Island

We were contracted as a lead generator for an FDI mission encompassing a series of seminars and meetings in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka in Japan.

We researched 4,200 companies, contacted 2,000 individuals and secured the attendance of 169 executives at the seminars, as well as setting up 118 meetings. The introduction of Samsung Renewable Energy to the City of Summerside on Prince Edward Island resulted in a successful pilot followed by the $68M development of a 65,000-solar panel and battery storage farm.

Read full case study

"Intralink team, thank you so much. Everyone was extremely satisfied with their China experience. You were invaluable and great to work with."

Sandi Moilanen – Director, State of Colorado

Our Clients

“The report is a great piece of work—graphically clean, well-written, and with strong contacts identified.”

State of Washington - International Trade Specialist