The international department at Bradford Chamber has been busy.

An e-mail scheme cutting the amount of time spent filling out export documents, a trade mission to China and taking refreshment to a village blighted by a lack of clean water in Peru have all been part of its activities. Telegraph & Argus Reporter Rebecca Wright reports on the organisation which has taken Bradford business abroad.

Companies wanting to export goods have always faced costly delays thanks to mountains of official paperwork.

But members of Bradford Chamber will be able to do away with costly documentation thanks to a scheme piloted by its international department.

The programme, which uses e-mail to shuffle paperwork, has vastly cut the time spent sorting legal documents.

Using a programme called e-Cert to pass documentation between members, the Chamber and other agencies have cut the need for couriers and lengthy hours filling in forms by hand.

The new measures mean members of the Bradford-based international department, which covers the Bradford district, Leeds and North Yorkshire, can now receive export documents by e-mail, check and certify them electronically and return to the sender in less than an hour.

And following such success e-Cert will be rolled out to chambers across the nation in September. Bradford-based Prestigious Textiles in Great Horton signed-up to the pilot scheme. The company buys and sells textile drapery and upholstery fabrics, which are exported worldwide from the Bradford head office and sites in Germany, France, Ireland and South Africa.

More than 90 countries rely on the service and more than 40 per cent of the company's business involves exporting.

Graham Ball, export administrator for the company said: "Before e-Certification we would have orders packed up and ready for air-freight, but we would be delayed waiting for the certificates of origin. We would try and send deliveries on the weekend, but sometimes the administrative delay meant we missed that flight and had to send the goods midweek at greater cost."

He said e-Cert had offered a solution. "It has made undoubted savings on cost we no longer miss air freights or have to send people to the Chamber to process the documents," he said.

Tim Bailey, manager of the international department said: "E-Certification is a quantum leap forward. This is something new and dynamic it will change the way businesses work. We've trialled it and know it's extremely effective."

But while the international department helps companies export goods across the world, the organisation also helps businesses make the first link with firms overseas.

A trade mission in China this June is an example of the department's work promoting international networking. Chamber members will be the only people at the conference from the UK. And a special Yorkshire week at the event will heighten the district's profile in the international ring. Companies will be able to hold one-to-one meetings with representatives from more than 100 international firms.

Giuseppe Randisi, the owner and manager at Randisi Textiles Recycling Ltd on Mulgrave Street in the Leeds Road area, said he would be taking part in the mission. His company buys clothes from one country and sells them to another and he had been hoping to move into China.

"I have been thinking about it for a while because there is a lot of cheap clothing coming from there," he said, and he believes international trade missions are an excellent way of meeting new contacts and customers and expanding globally.

Being a member of the Chamber boosted his prospects of international trade. And he said the other services offered by the department were invaluable.

"The international team in Bradford have really helped me out," he said.

But it is not only Chamber members who benefit from the work of the international department. Villagers from Quebrada Verde in Peru have their own supply of fresh water for the first time in years thanks to a concerted effort by district organisations, including the international department.

Councillor Lynne Joyce (Lab, Keighley Central) and Mick Milner, director of iron foundry Leech and Thompson at Dalton Lane in Keighley, teamed up to help get a new water pump to the village after hearing the original had been stolen more than five years ago. The international department helped to organise the paperwork.

Mr Milner said: "When you get involved with a project like this it seems to take an inordinate length of time to do what needs to be done because of transport problems etc. But, it is nice to know that, with goodwill on everyone's part, we can get these things done."

e-mail: rebecca.wright@bradford.newsquest.co.uk