AIEx News

The Australian Institute of Export is pleased to introduce a new benefit to all our Business Members. The Importers/ Exporters Directory,  will list exporting and importing companies from the home page of our website. The listings are only available to AIEx business members. To get your company listed in the directory, you will need to provide the following information:

Users visiting the AIEx website will be able to search for companies by industry and by alphabetical order.

If you are interested in upgrading your membership to Business membership or signing up for membership  to take advantage of the listing opportunity than please contact Lisa McAuley on 02 8243 7400 or lisamcauley@aiex.com.au. 

AIEx and Chifley Business School now offer AIEX members pathways into higher education. Upon completion of AIEx’s Graduate Certificate in International Business Management or the Graduate Diploma of International Business Management, you can articulate into a Chifley postgraduate program.

Do you want to get ahead in your career? Thinking about undertaking an MBA? Find out more about Chifley postgraduate programs at an information evening.

Reasons to enrol in AIEx and Chifley postgraduate programs

• Portable—delivered via distance learning which means you can study anywhere, at your own pace, in your own time
• Pathways—articulate into the Chifley Graduate Diploma or Masters program
• Affordable—the corporate affiliation rate means that as a member you could not find a better value option.
• Flexible—enrol in one unit or complete an award

For more information contact Cherie Matsuki on 02 8243 7460 or email: cheriematsuki@aiex.com.au

Technology: Bridging the gap to going global

• Entering new overseas markets?
• Part of a team with a great export culture?
• Have a great success story to tell?

Isn’t it time you got recognised for your hard work and success overseas?

The 2010 Premier's NSW Export Awards recognise excellence in the export of goods and services by NSW business. The Awards acknowledge the important contribution of NSW companies to the economy through job creation and increased prosperity for the community and for the state.

Regardless of size or location you have the opportunity to enter into the awards. Categories include:

• Agribusiness
• Arts & Entertainment
• Education & Training
• Emerging Exporter
• Information and Communication Technology
• Large Advanced Manufacturer
• Large Services
• *** Minerals and Energy- including technology, equipment and services to the minerals and energy industries.
• Regional Exporter
• Small Business
• Small to Medium Manufacturing
• Small to Medium Services
• Asian Exporter
• Young Exporter
• Innovation in Export
• *** Sustainable Exporter

Companies who enter the NSW Awards and win can go on to compete for a National Award and the highly prestigious Prime Minister’s Australian Exporter of the Year Award.

Why enter?

RECOGNITION: Tell the world about your success.

REWARD: Excellence in Export is never a result of one person’s hard work; it’s the work of a team.

REVIEW:  Valuable time spent on the application is valuable time spent updating your business plan. 

RESULTS:  By telling the world that you’re the winner of a prestigious export award, you command instant respect.

www.exportawards.gov.au/nsw

Applications close: 20th August 2010

The 2010 Premier’s NSW Export Awards are kindly supported by the following partners:

• Industry & Investment NSW
• Austrade
• Australia Post
• ANZ
• Dynamic Export Magazine
• Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC)
• HSBC Bank Australia
• Qantas Freight
• Sydney Ports Corporation
• The Sydney Morning Herald
• The University of New South Wales

Contact: Lisa McAuley, Australian Institute of Export on 1300 361 526 or info@aiex.com.au for further information.

There in no doubt that the Export Market Development Grant Scheme works. Every piece of research in every study conducted concludes that the Government gets bang for every buck invested in EMDG and more. It’s important to exporters too, very important. In a study conducted by the Australian Institute of Export amongst a sample of over two hundred respondents, 64% said the scheme was a significant help when they first started exporting. When asked “if the scheme had not been available, would you have started exporting, 23% said that they would not have, which is substantial when you consider the many thousands of companies that have entered the program since it started in 1974. Equally interesting was the number of respondents that despite answering that the scheme was not critical in their decision to start exporting they went on to say “that without the scheme they could well have pulled out or that progress would have been slower”.

Just as important, anecdotal evidence clearly supports the proposition that exporters need confidence in the scheme to pay 100% of their claim or they will simply cut back on their marketing activity.

So why is the scheme going to fall short this year and unless rectified fall short in years to come?

The Rudd and Howard Governments made significant changes to the scheme including introducing Intellectual Property, lowering the threshold, adding an eighth year and increasing the level of travel expenses. The scheme has become so popular that the number of recipients has grown to over five thousand, an increase of something like 40%. At the same time, the funding cap has not been increased to a level that will accommodate these changes.

For the year ended 2008/09, the funding cap was set at $200million. At that level it will still fall short by an estimated $30M. For the 2009/10 grant year and subsequent years it reverts back to $150million in the budget forward estimates, the same as it was in 2006/07. Clearly if that happens, and no changes are made, the result will be devastating for exporters.

The Institute has a very clear view on what needs to be done. First the funding must be lifted to $200million and indexed. To ensure that demand remains within the cap, elements of the scheme may need to be amended. The maximum grant could be reduced and the minimum threshold could be increased but the Institute does not support a reduction in years to five or leaving the funding at $150million. By reducing the years, the Government would simply slow the pace of export activity and reduce its return on investment as years five six and seven are years when better performance prevails.

The Institute is working at all levels of Government, with associations and the press to get the message through. This campaign will continue right up until budget day, 11^th May.      

In last months issue we discussed the issue of diversity in Australia’s export portfolio and how that played a role in helping us avoid being swept into recession along with the rest of the world. This raised its head again recently when I had the privilege of reading the more than forty nominations that came in for the Australian Export Heroes Awards.

The awards created by the Australian Institute of Export over ten years ago recognise people who have made an outstanding contribution not only to export but to building Australia’s reputation overseas as a leader in many fields of endeavour. This year’s nominations included people from some of our traditional export sectors like agriculture and mining and others from an extremely diverse range of business activities, like avionics, skin care and architecture.

It always amazes me when I’m involved in either judging the export awards or when reading the export heroes nominations that Australians can not only do almost anything but do it to a level that’s worlds best practice. This year’s Australian Export Heroes are certainly good examples.

Take Will Hutchinson who runs Thomas Electronics a Western Sydney company that works in the very complex field of avionics. Will has worked tirelessly for over for over twenty years to gain accreditation and certification from a wide range of international authorities that position his company as a leading supplier of electronic systems and display technologies. His company today is the designated support facility for cockpit display units used by the Australian and New Zealand Defence Forces, as well as over twenty five international airlines.

The diversity goes even further when one looks at the achievements of Queensland based Vivienne Lipke the owner of Icecraft International a company that produces and markets unique ice mould freezing systems used in hospitality venues, hotels and retail outlets in more than 117 countries from Alaska to Zimbabwe. Next time you are in Harrods, an Inter-Continental, Ritz-Carlton or one of more than forty top hotels, the ice sculpture in the ballroom very likely came from a mould made by Vivienne’s family business just south of Brisbane.

And it doesn’t stop there. Alan Oppenheim Managing Director of Ego Pharmaceuticals also joined the register of export heroes this year. Alan after being appointed Scientific Director in 1981 has been instrumental in taking the well known Ego brands first to Cyprus in 1990 then the UAE, Iran, Malta Bahrain and Jordan and today across Asia. For an Australian company to successfully compete in the world of skincare is not only a credit to Alan and his team but to those who have developed the technology required to be internationally competitive.

Out of the ACT comes another fine example of diversity. David Gaul started his career in the Royal Australian Navy where he spent twenty two years as a naval officer. In 1983 with his partner Ian Croser, David founded CEA Technologies, a Fyshwick based company specializing in the design, development and manufacture of advanced radar and communications solutions for civil and military applications. David and his team have taken their capability to all corners of the earth with projects in Europe, the Middle East and the United States. In 2003 David was awarded the Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award and in the same year received the Centenary Medal for Services to Australian Defence.

Education has for many years now occupied a strong position in Australia’s export performance. Max Schroder was one of the people that drove the birth and growth of what is now a major contributor to export. After many years at the University of New South Wales and driving the marketing function of a consortium of NSW and ACT universities, Max took a major career shift into private enterprise establishing the Sydney Institute of Business & Technology (SIBT) in collaboration with and on the campus of Macquarie University. SIBT established colleges here in Australia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Zambia, Indonesia and the UK.

One year after Coface's positioning as an international financial rating agency, specialised inrating companies, a first assessment is now available on the ratings attributed to French companies. On December 31st 2009, the majority of companies maintained an "investmentgrade" rating, despite a modification rate for ratings that was much higher in 2009 than anormal year. Coface is calling for a change in the regulations for financial ratings and will file with theEuropean bodies for accreditation, at the same time as the historical actors. Download a copy of the full article here >

The years 2008 and 2009 will remain those of the fifth global credit crisis, the most serious since the Second World War. World growth went from 4.2% in 2007 to 2.1% in 2008 and then to -1.9% in 2009, for an unprecedented growth drop of 6 points.

In this context, Coface’s business in 2009 was marked by:
• An increase in turnover of 3.8%.
• Profits that followed the three phases of the crisis: positive in the first three quarters of 2008, then posting losses in the next three quarters, finally showing solid improvement in the second half of 2009 with a positive profit in the fourth quarter of 2009.
• Strong support from its shareholder: two capital increases that strengthened Coface’s financial solidity far beyond what it was before the crisis.

Download full report >