Bella Huele, president of the San Diego World Trade Center, notes the WTC’s Asia Desk organizes trade delegations, hosts inbound delegates and serves as a business matchmaker.

The scenario is straight out of a commercial: Local biotech company learns of large government contract in China with deadline only six days away. Employees hustle to translate bid request from Mandarin and submit response. Company wins contract. In this case, the company was San Diego’s Cliniqa, which makes quality control products for hospital laboratories. The contract involved a national quality control program for Chinese hospitals, and one of the heroes was Yu Xin, a Chinese immigrant who received training in international business practices under a program run by the San Diego World Trade Center.

“It’s a very important deal,” says Cliniqa’s John Fewster, vice president for sales and marketing. “We beat out the competition in that short time.”

Yu Xin was one of about 50 people who spoke both English and an Asian language to attend the WTC’s Export Facilitators program, which aims to provide international business expertise to local companies. The program is one of many initiatives run by the WTC, a nonprofit agency established by the San Diego Port District and city of San Diego to help companies in San Diego and Imperial counties develop and expand opportunities for international commerce.

Through its Asia Desk, funded by a grant from the county of San Diego and matches from the private sector, the WTC organizes trade delegations to Asia, hosts inbound delegations, provides research assistance to local companies and serves as “match-maker” between San Diego firms and their Asian counterparts, says Bella Huele, president and CEO. The WTC also holds educational forums and helps clients such as the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reach trading partners in the San Diego region.

The WTC is licensed by the World Trade Centers Association, an umbrella organization based in New York City. Huele reports 285 World Trade Center members in 77 countries around the globe.

The San Diego WTC links local businesses with potential customers and trading partners in Asia, Mexico and other parts of the world, Huele says.

Asia’s burgeoning markets have prompted the WTC to focus a large portion of its efforts on that region. Huele says clients request assistance with Asian commerce. “People don’t feel that comfortable yet and they don’t feel they understand the culture and that’s why they need us,” she says.

The WTC is at 1250 Sixth Ave., San Diego, and can be reached at (619) 615-0868, or by e-mail at wtc@sdwtc.org. Its Web site is sdwtc.org.