New organization to target exports for northern Nevada manufacturers

A privately financed export-promotion program for products manufactured in northern Nevada will be launched in January.

The program, NBC International Ventures, will be headed by Bert Ramos, a Reno businessman and president of The Hemisphere Group.

Other organizers include Bob Shriver, an economic development consultant and former executive director of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, and Kris Holt, executive director of Nevada Business Connections, a private economic development group in Carson City.

Ramos said the organization has contacts in Central America, Mexico and Canada who are looking for suppliers in northern Nevada. Trade representatives from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico are visiting companies in Carson City, Minden and Reno, he said.

Shriver said the new group will share offices with Nevada Business Connections and allied itself with NBC because of its network of manufacturing contacts in the region.

He said NBC International Ventures hopes to open a Las Vegas office as well.

Other organizers, Holt said in a news release last week, include Paul Enos of the Nevada Motor Transport Association, Pat Langhoff of Langhoff Consulting in Minden, Brian Bonnefant of the UNR Center for Regional Studies, Darryl Rubarth of Exyst.com in Carson City and Reno, Ryan Costella of Click-Bond in Carson City and Brian Wallace of Nevada State Development Corp.

Holt said the program is intended to help existing manufacturers in the region generate new revenue and to provide an additional reason for other manufacturers to consider moving to northern Nevada.