From 1 July 2009, Australian exporters may be eligible to partially recover the costs of intellectual property Protection under a recent amendment to the Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) Scheme.
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/resources/news_new.shtml#2
The Soeharto presidency (1966 – 1998) saw Indonesia’s economy grow at the extraordinary rate of nearly 7% p.a. for 30 years.
The 1997 Financial Crisis marked a dramatic and painful end of that phase but also the start of transformational change. Today, Indonesia has achieved a remarkable transition to democracy and a stable and expanding economy. As the Economist reports (The World in 2009 – 19 Nov 2008) “the country has consistently surprised on the upside”.
Indonesia’s macro-economic management has mostly been sound for the past forty years. The period of success started in the 1960s under Soeharto’s leadership and with the support of the “Berkeley Mafia” – the famous group of US trained economists whom Soeharto largely entrusted with economic policy. The present team, particularly Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister for Finance of Sri Mulyani, Bank Indonesia Governor Boediono, and Trade Minister Mari Pangestu, is also highly competent.
How will Indonesia deal with the current global financial turmoil? Why is Australia offering support? The Coordinating Minister for the Economy Sri Mulyani explained that “although faced with the impact of the global financial crisis, the Indonesian economy will be able to chart 5% growth in 2009”. With the impact of slowing economies in the rest of the world, 5% growth would be a very encouraging performance under the present global economic conditions.
Minister Sri Mulyani has announced the Indonesian Government will:
Although there remain significant uncertainties in the global environment Indonesia is currently well prepared.
Kylie-Ann Petroni from small ACT children’s fashion clothing label Cackleberry Kids will be showcasing the company’s clothing line from 16-20 January at California’s largest trade-show – the Los Angles fashion market. As part of G’Day LA 2009, Cackleberry will join some of Australia’s largest fashion houses as they showcase their clothing lines to thousands of department and chain store buyers from across the USA.
Today, Australian businesses are experiencing the benefit of increased demand and opportunities of globalisation. Yet in the face of the global credit crisis, they are also up against a fluctuating Australian dollar, tightening liquidity and a fall in commodity prices.
Has the recent credit crisis caused a rethink of export business models? How have the trends and outlook for exporting changed over the last 12 months? And, how ready are Australian businesses for the risks and challenges of today’s ever-changing international marketplace?
Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC), Australia’s export credit agency, is currently conducting its annual Global Readiness index (GRi). The GRi, officially launched last year, is a comprehensive study of the current drivers, decision-making processes, risks and barriers that Australian exporters and offshore investors face in an increasingly globalised and, at times, uncertain business world.
This unique study will provide Australian business with a comprehensive picture of the opportunities and challenges on the path to participating in today’s global supply chains. It will also compare results with those from the 2008 survey, and is expected to show some interesting insights as a result of the current global economic uncertainty.
Last year’s GRi surveyed almost 500 Australian businesses across the country; the majority of these were SME exporters.
The survey found that up to 73% of Australian exporters relied on retained earnings to finance their overseas expansion, only 35% used a debt facility from an Australian financial institution, and as little as seven percent from a foreign institution.
92% of respondents said they were expanding offshore in order to increase revenue or market share. Equal second was to ‘take control of the supply chain’ and ‘decrease costs’.
The 2008 survey also found that businesses primarily regard offshore expansion as a strategic path to market and revenue growth rather than a defensive ploy to protect what they already have.
Respondents said that inadequate knowledge of overseas markets (76%), and lack of finance (67%) were the two biggest obstacles they faced when seeking to expand overseas.
All survey participants this year will again receive a customised benchmark report comparing key aspects of their export and globalisation strategies with the business trends revealed by the aggregate results from within their own industry sector, as well as Australian businesses overall.
The online survey closes on 28 February 2009 and only takes around 10 minutes. To complete the survey visit www.efic.gov.au/gri/actexport.
Following an extensive open tender process, the Queensland Government selected ActivIdentity to deliver its identity assurance platform for the smartcard license project,” said Cathi Taylor, Chief Information Officer, Queensland Transport.
“The decision to select ActivIdentity was based on their proven track record in large-scale identity assurance deployments, a highly configurable full-feature smartcard management system, and long term support for open standards,” she said.
“ActivIdentity is proud that the Queensland Government has selected our identity assurance technology for this groundbreaking deployment. The scale and unique features of this program demonstrate and leverage our strong experience, product excellence, and ability to deliver identity assurance across the full spectrum of credential management,” said ActivIdentity CEO Grant Evans. “The Queensland Government is creating a safe harbor for its citizens’ identities by replacing vulnerable laminated licenses with secure smartcard-based licenses. For more information click here.
On behalf of its many members and sponsors, Canberra Business Council and the ACT Exporters’ Network would like to congratulate Professor David Widdowson and his team at the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies for winning the 2008 Australian Export Award Education & Training Category.
The Centre for Customs & Excise Studies, based at the University of Canberra, becomes only the second ACT company in the history of the National Awards to win a category award. IELTS Australia Pty Ltd won the International Education Award back in 2004.
The Australian Exporter of the Year for 2008 was Appen from NSW. Appen are a leading provider of products and services to the speech technology industry. Appen employs 150 people in seven countries and has increased its exports by 50% over the last year.
The Minister for Trade, the Hon Simon Crean MP in presenting the awards on Friday evening, said that collectively, the category award winners, generated export earnings worth $969 million during the last financial year and directly employed more than 1,400 people.
Canberra Business Council would like to commend all the ACT finalists. DIVA Australia, Centre for Customs & Excise Studies, Stratsec, Intelledox, Recruitment Systems, Australian Scientific Instruments and Noetic Group have all demonstrated marketing innovation, a commitment to international business, and outstanding export achievement within their industry over the past year. They have shown us that they have what it takes to compete on the world stage and win.
The 2008 Australian Export Awards, which were held in Melbourne last Friday night, recognise Australian businesses for excellence and achievement in exporting. The Awards are comprised of eight State and Territory Export Awards and co-presented by Austrade and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI).
For more information on the awards log onto http://www.australianexportawards.com.au/
As an exporter, the critical issues arising from the credit crunch are, ‘How will I finance my export activities?’, and sec¬ondly, ‘How will I get paid for what I have done?’
John Collins, chief credit officer at EFIC, says, “The Australian experience to date has been better than most countries. But this shortage of working capital is certainly becoming a trend in developed economies, so depending on the depths and duration of the crisis, it may develop into an issue for our exporters.”
Financing projects of scale is now becoming dif¬ficult, even in the Australian market. This reflects the difficulties which most banks are facing in having to pay higher rates for borrowing. As a defensive measure, banks may reduce their expo¬sures, resulting in a decrease in short-term trade lines and postponing of decisions about longer term funding of customer projects.
In these circumstances, EFIC’s role is to step forward and help exporters to continue growing their business internationally. EFIC has a range of solutions available to assist exporters with oth¬erwise sound business strategies encountering difficulties in the current situation.
EFIC can provide export loans or a working capital guarantee such as EFIC Headway. EFIC Headway provides a guarantee to a par¬ticipating bank to enable it to lend additional funds to eligible exporters, without requiring ad¬ditional security from the exporter.
Sometimes overseas buyers require Advance Payment Bonds or Performance Bonds as assur¬ance that exporters will meet their obligations under an export contract. A bank might be able to provide such a bond, but if this is not feasi¬ble, EFIC may provide the bond, where eligibility requirements are met. This could free up an ex¬porter’s working capital, providing them with the security to compete in global markets.
While the recent weakness in the Australian Dollar has helped exporters become more com¬petitive in their pricing, the cost of funding ex¬port business with the Australian Dollar equiva¬lent value has increased.
EFIC can supplement the banks and over¬come financial barriers facing exporters. They can offer reassurance regarding payments to ex¬porters for their exports through documentary credit guarantees and medium term payments insurance.
Export payments insurance for contracts of over two years is designed to reduce the risk of loss in an export contract arising from defined events, such as the insolvency of an overseas buyer. If an export contract is worth $A5 million or more, EFIC may be able to issue a guarantee to an approved bank. The bank can then use the EFIC guarantee as security to provide a loan to an overseas buyer, enabling the deal to go ahead.
For more information, please contact Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) on 1800 093 724, or visit their website www.efic.gov.au
The Centre for Customs and Excise Studies (CCES) took out the ACT’s top award as Chief Minister’s Exporter of the Year for 2008 at the ACT’s, Chief Minister’s Export Awards 2008 ceremony which was held today at the National Convention Centre in Canberra.
CEO, Professor David Widdowson accepted the Award on behalf of CCES’s global network of over 150 experts across 22 countries. CCES provides customs research, consultancy and internationally endorsed educational programs ranging from vocational through to postgraduate and doctoral level.
“The finalist this year are truly inspirational and are a testament to the breath and depth of talent and experience we have here within the ACT business community. Chris Faulks, CEO, Canberra Business Council said today. “The Centre for Customs and Excise Studies has gone from humble beginnings as an area of academic interest within the University of Canberra to take on a significant international leadership role, acknowledged by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) as the leading centre of excellence in customs and excise” said Chris Faulks.
The ACT’s Emerging Exporter Award was given to Stratsec.net Pty Ltd one of Australia’s leading independent information management and ICT security consultancies. Export growth has provided Stratsec with opportunities to expand their client base, diversify their service offerings and access government grant funding that would not have previously been available.
Other notable category winners include Intelledox Pty Ltd, a Canberra firm specialising in international business software and Recruitment Systems Pty Ltd, a supplier of software to the global recruitment industry. Recruitment Systems’ core product TRIS helps recruiters effectively manage their relationships with their clients and job candidates.
IELTS Australia Pty becomes the fourth entrant into the ACT Exporters’ Hall of Fame. IELTS has received four category awards in the history of the ACT Export Awards and in 2004 became the only ACT category winner to have gone on to win the National Education Export Award.
“The ACT Exporters’ Network has played an important role in the development of local exporters into dynamic and successful exporters” said Kevin Reilly, Chairperson, and International Business Taskforce. “The Network actively works to build awareness amongst local ACT businesses of global opportunities and the benefits of moving into export markets through networking and mentoring events that facilitate export knowledge and experience sharing”.
US Senate gets it wrong on Buy American
The Minister for Trade Simon Crean has hit out at the US Senate after it voted against an amendment to strip the Buy American clause from the US stimulus package. For more information click here.