Online barter service developer Bentley Communications is in discussions with several entities in the Middle East, including Iraq, that are interested in establishing a network of barter exchanges that plan to focus on providing alternative capital initiatives to companies that can provide goods and services targeting the reconstruction of Iraq.
"With the recent capture of Saddam Hussein, the ensuing regional stabilization should accelerate the billions of dollars allocated for reconstruction efforts," said Bentley's chairman and CEO, Gordon Lee. "Barter can provide a means to enhance cash spending, or actually reduce cash requirements for reconstruction and other economic development, by providing alternative capital initiatives. Bentley, through its Bentley's Crump Barter Network, VirtualBarter software and Corporate Barter division, is positioning itself to capitalize on these initiatives."
"Historically many countries and governments, in addition to the private sector, utilize barter," continued Lee. "These transactions, that total about $650 billion annually, enable them to sell excess products or capacity at full price, in exchange for other products and services, rather than liquidating inventories at pennies on the dollar. Natural resources and excess capacity in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries can be leveraged through barter transactions to pay for other required products and services that can be supplied by other countries or companies."
Bentley has already developed a strategic relationship with a new emerging trade exchange network in the Middle East that will be participating in its worldwide global network and use VirtualBarter software. This software is intended to eliminate barriers to trade by providing new multi-lingual, multi-currency trading for barter and trade exchanges, and their members worldwide. Other international exchanges, including one in Paris, France, will be using the software as part of Bentley's global marketplace.
With VirtualBarter, new developing trade exchanges that establish themselves in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries will soon have a vast inventory of products and services available to them and their members, including about 50,000 members who trade through the largely North American based 180 trade exchanges that participate in Bentley's Crump Barter Network.
Corporate barter is already a growing $20 billion worldwide industry. The US Department of Commerce estimates that Countertrade, used by multi-national companies and governments to trade excess products and production capacity for other needed products, totals over $600 billion annually. Retail and corporate barter trade solutions enable similar benefits for smaller transactions. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
