Exports key to our prosperity

I READ Nathalie Thomas's article "Foreign adventures hold key to recovery" (Business, 28 March) with interest. Like Innis & Gunn, taking its first steps to conquer US markets, we're finding Scottish technology businesses are breaking into overseas markets to survive and grow.

In response to members' interests, ScotlandIS recently set up an Export Group. This is designed to bring together companies who have conquered international markets and can share their expertise with companies planning to break into these markets. Now is a great time to expand overseas – the weak pound makes our services more competitive, technology makes selling overseas less expensive and many of the barriers to international trading have been removed.

The recent ScotlandIS technology survey shows encouraging results from the software and ICT industry. Sales to all overseas markets are growing, with 44 per cent of respondents reporting sales to Europe alone.

Exporting is a huge opportunity and technology is the key to levelling the global playing field.

Polly Purvis, executive director of ScotlandIS