WAND, INC. BUSINESS DIRECTORY LAUNCH PROMOTES TRADE AND COMMERCE WITH INDIAN SMEs

Denver, CO, USA and Punjab, India —- WAND, Inc., a leading directory technology company, today announced the launch a new business to business directory targeting small and medium enterprises in the State of Punjab, India. The Powered by WAND directory is the cornerpiece www.sme.in, a new portal launched to drive trade and commerce between SMEs in Punjab and the global market. WAND partnered with SME Business Services, Ltd., an Indian public-private partnership to create this directory, which connects buyers and sellers based on any of 70,000+ product and service categories. Companies that register on the directory will also get exposure on more than twenty different business to business directories reaching 177 countries in sixteen different languages. SME Business Services will offer other trade related services through www.sme.in to facilitate commerce once a buyer and seller have been connected.

“We are very happy to be working with WAND to provide the small and medium enterprise in Punjab with a doorway to trade with the rest of the world,” noted Deepak Nanda, Managing Director & CEO of SME Business Services, Ltd. He added www.sme.in is an important part of Punjab’s economic promotion strategy and that the services provided on the Portal will enable many Indian SME’s to engage in international trade for the first time.

According to Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, the Director-cum-Secretary at the Department of Information Technology for the Government of Punjab, “This portal will go a long way in promoting Punjab’s small & medium industries in global markets.” He promised full government support to SMEs and SME Business Services Ltd. for achieving the goal of rapid growth of exports from Punjab industry.

Rakesh Nangia, the Executive Director of Finance for Punjab Infotech agreed that SMEs are the back-bone of Punjab’s economy. “More than 200,000 small & medium enterprises have employed millions of employees in Punjab. Their competence and participation in the dynamic global trading environment will dramatically increase by using this state-of-art multi-lingual marketing engine.”

Ross A. Leher, WAND’s CEO, was excited to be adding a high quality partner in India to the WAND Directory Network. “Each new directory that joins the WAND Directory Network increases the opportunities for existing partners and advertisers. Buyers and sellers in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Africa, the United States, Latin America, and now India can all easily find one another through their local Powered by WAND directory portals. The internet is truly making the world a smaller place.”



About WAND, Inc.

Since 1995, WAND, Inc. (www.wandinc.com) has developed and delivered a precision, multi-lingual, natural language product and service taxonomy, the WAND Taxonomy, for product and service centered applications. Powered by WAND online directory solutions, featuring the WAND Taxonomy, provide a robust and customizable application to structure and search any product and service based information. WAND, Inc. serves customers on five continents.

About SME Business Services Ltd.

SME Business Services Limited brings at your doorstep, global markets, world-class technology, opportunities and partnerships that will take you to unprecedented scales of growth and success. A Public-Private Partnership, SME Business Services Ltd is a joint venture company of Punjab Information & Communication Technology Corporation Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of Government of Punjab. Government of Punjab is committed to facilitate the growth of Industries, especially small & medium, in the State. A number of initiatives have been taken in this direction. SME Business Services has been incorporated for connecting small and medium enterprises with the global market. The primary objective of this new company is to provide Web and IT based marketing engine for growth of SME segment, especially for the Global exports of Punjab products and services. The company has tied up with best of the breed international technology and networked with major global online directories for delivering the top class services to the SME segment.