Fayoumi: They provide us with information on the markets in the countries where they are based and advise us on the current tastes of those markets. For example, in furniture making, we have the best craftsmen in the world at making reproduction furniture. One town alone has 120,000 people working in this industry. But there is no point in creating such reproduction 18^th century furniture for Germany if German furniture makers can do it for themselves. But perhaps instead of selling a few containers of chairs we can sell millions of already carved legs. Market intelligence can help us respond to such demands.

Fayoumi: The system is still new, only about two years old. It is not the only thing we are doing or planning to do. In the exporters association our agenda includes technical assistance, help with corporate image-building, international trade fairs, match-making, assist small and medium start-up enterprises, and advocacy for export policy reform. But in market intelligence, though we use government statistics, we verify the information against our own sources. We collect and acquire information through market research and trade fairs as well as through trade correspondents. We evaluate and analyze the data to identify opportunities and threats, then disseminate verified opportunities and try to reduce the threats through policy advocacy. We are working in a number of sectors: fresh and processed food, apparel and textiles, software and IT, furniture, leather and footwear, building materials, and the plastics industries. One of our aims is to encourage SMEs to form industrial clusters.