It is the heartland of Germany's export-driven Mittelstand enterprises and has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

ECONOMIST: German politics

The approach seeks to focus on harnessing existing technologies and using them to create new enterprises that export to regional and international markets.

FORBES: Trading Places: Commerce Drives Science And Technology In Africa

Beijing may adopt other policy measures to support economic activity, such as opening up more strategic industries (eg, railway, power and telecom, and services) to private investment, providing special assistance to small and midsized enterprises and export companies, and, possibly, offering specific consumer spending subsidies.

FORBES: What's On Deck For China Investors?

He announced a range of new finance and insurance products as part of a Trade and Investment White Paper aimed at helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to export more goods overseas.

BBC: Cable gives details to MPs of plan to boost UK exports