MOSES LAKE — The Port of Moses Lake recently acquired the services of two independent contractors, one who is stationed in Japan, to help with business development and marketing efforts.

Richard Hanover, the port’s director of business development, presented to Port of Moses Lake commissioners at their last meeting about the port’s business development and strategic marketing plan. The plan involves the use of contractors Bruce Laird and Nobunori Saito to help recruit business and market the Port of Moses Lake. Laird and Saito were brought on board with the port in early April and are already at work on their various tasks.

Hanover said Laird will focus his efforts on an e-campaign that will centralize on outreach through various media to more than 200 Japanese companies.

“Bruce Laird is starting a marketing campaign to about 250 companies in Japan — both email and social media marketing campaign,” Hanover said. “This is based on his three-decade career in economic development. We are specifically targeting industries that are part of our current cluster here.”

Saito will serve as the Port of Moses Lake’s boots on the ground in Japan. He is stationed in Japan and will provide the port with first contact of companies who may be interested, or who may become interested, in doing business with the port.

“We just got an agreement back with him, so he is going to be part-time for us working in Japan doing a lot of our outreach to the different industries that we are targeting over there,” Hanover said.

The financial impact to the port for the contracts for Laird and Saito is a combined $56,000.

The expanded economic development efforts in Japan stemmed in part from a trip that port staff took to the island nation last year. After that trip, Hanover said the port discovered a large number of companies who had interest in expanding or moving operations to port property in Moses Lake.

“We are a pretty well-known commodity in Japan,” he said.

The plan is also tied to port’s current cluster of businesses, which feature a number of Japan-headquartered companies. Hanover said the port has identified many other businesses in similar industries in Japan that would fit well in Moses Lake.

“A lot of the companies that we have targeted are companies that are heavy-use in power (and) based on our current cluster of businesses that we have here in chemical, aerospace (and) manufacturing,” Hanover said.

Laird helped the port identify 100 leading Japanese companies that could potentially fit the mold for operations in Moses Lake, Hanover said. The port will use a cloud computing system to track the work of the two consultants and communicate information and business leads to them. This allows the consultants and port personnel to access and input information from anywhere.

“Anywhere you are, anytime, any place, you will be able to access our system and be able to get information on the companies and actually put information back into the cloud so that we can update the system continuously,” Hanover told the commissioners.

Instant updates will work to the port’s advantage: Hanover explained that for example, if port staff got a “hot lead” on a company in Japan, they could immediately provide Saito with information on the company through the cloud system. Saito could then make the first initial contact with the company.

With the implementation of the marketing and business development plan involving the new consultants, Hanover said Port of Moses Lake staff hope to schedule another trip to Japan by late May or early June for site visits with prospective companies.

As part of its marketing and development plan, the port is also in the midst of having a new website constructed by Hagadone Digital. Hanover showed the commissioners a preview of what the website will look like and the various features and information it will contain. According to information provided by the port, the website build will cost just less than $33,000.

Ryan Minnerly can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.