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Jets soar over the Portsmouth skies at the Boston-Portsmouth Service Credit Union Airshow at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease in June 2012.Rich Beauchesne/rbeauchesne@seacoastonline.com

A partnership of four Seacoast cities, the state's economic development agency, Pease International Tradeport and a local community college is celebrating the first anniversary of an effort to promote the region as a place where aerospace suppliers can establish their businesses.

"We're working together for suppliers and the industry to expand in the Seacoast area," said Lorna Colquhoun, communication and legislative director for the N.H. Department of Resources and Economic Development.

New Hampshire Aerospace and Defense Export Consortium: Formed to market the state's more than 300 aerospace and defense related companies to overseas buyers. It is spearheaded by the N.H. International Trade Resource Center.

N.H. Aerospace and Defense Export Consortium: http://www.nhadec.com

Aerospace NH: http://www.aerospacenh.com

DRED, the cities of Portsmouth, Dover, Somersworth and Rochester, as well as Pease Tradeport and Great Bay Community College, have been working cooperatively since March of last year to promote the area as a "composites manufacturing region," according to Colquhoun.

It is part of the larger year-old effort called the New Hampshire Aerospace and Defense Export Consortium to market the state's more than 300 aerospace and defense-related companies to overseas buyers. It is spearheaded by the N.H. International Trade Resource Center (ITRC). Promotional material says these 300 companies supply about 4 percent to the state's GDP each year. As a share of a state economy, that ranks sixth in the country.

Exports are becoming one of the fastest-growing parts of the New Hampshire economy and that will only get bigger with the globalization of the aerospace industry and with cutbacks of domestic defense spending, according to Tina Kasim, ITRC program manager.

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Seacoast aerospace consortium marks 1st anniversary