By Carol Coultas,Business Writer

AUGUSTA – When it comes to sealing a business deal, the Maine International Trade Center wants to make sure prospective clients can say “yes.”

And “si.”

And “hau.”

And “ja.”

And “hai.”

And two versions of “oui.”

The MITC’s latest CD-ROM touting Maine’s advantages for foreign investment can be played in seven languages, including the Canadian and Parisian versions of French. The other tongues are Italian, Chinese, German, Japanese and English.

Hundreds of the newly minted CDs will be stuffed into the luggage of a trade delegation departing for France on Saturday.

“You don’t know where a lead will come from,” said Richard Coyne, president of the Maine International Trade Center, which is heading up the trade mission to France.

He and his staff intend to hand out the CDs at every chance during the eight-day trip.

“We need the marketing material with us,” said Coyne.

The CD touts Maine’s central location in the Boston/Halifax/Montreal triangle, as well as its work force, infrastructure and educational institutions.

“We’re right in the middle of the East Coast of North America,” said Coyne. “We don’t hold that tailpipe’ view.”

The CD features interviews with executives of several global companies who are glad to be doing business in Maine. According to the Organization for International Investment, more than 33,000 Mainers are employed by subsidiaries of foreign companies – a gain of 48 percent over the past five years. Maine ranks eighth in the country in its share of the work force supported by U.S. subsidiaries.

Among those are the 640 employees of Poland Spring, whose parent company, Nestle Waters, is based in Switzerland. David Burns, director of supply chain operations for the water bottler, attests to Maine’s central location for delivering its products, and its quality of life.

“We do have great access to Boston and New York, which are our two primary markets,” he said.

“Maine is not just a good place to do business, it’s a great place to live,” he said.

Also featured in the CD is Auburn’s Ford Reiche, president of Safe Handling, a logistics and materials-handling company on Rodman Road. Safe Handling is connected by rail to Vancouver, where many of the raw materials he processes for his clients arrive from Asian markets.

“It’s a positive place for us to do business,” he said of his Maine operation, which employs 100 people.

The CD lists Maine’s transportation advantages, including six commercial airports, and highways that put the state within a 10-hour drive of 21 percent of the U.S. market and 52 percent of the Canadian market. It also boasts three seaports that shave a day off transcontinental shipments compared to any other U.S. seaport. It makes mention of Auburn’s Foreign Trade Zone, and the potential it represents to saving duty taxes on imports and exports.

It also highlights Maine’s university system and innovative laptop program as advantages to companies seeking an educated work force. The state’s high-tech infrastructure also gets significant mention.

Coyne said more than $4 billion of foreign investment has come to Maine over the past five years. He’d like to see that number grow.

“We’re trying to attract foreign companies to Maine,” he said. “We have so many advantages.”