ACT Export Assistance

If you are thinking about exporting your products or services, exporting can return some direct benefits such as increased sales, profit and production. It also has some indirect benefits including improving performance and competitiveness in an international market, better utilisation of facilities resulting in lower average production costs and balancing season fluctuations in sales.

Assessing Your Export Readiness

If you are considering exporting your product or services you should make an assessment of your "export readiness".

Generally speaking export sales:

cost more and take longer to achieve (overseas marketing costs can be considerably higher than local) and
profit margins may be lower (but highly differentiated and innovative products sometimes achieve higher margins in export markets than can be secured in Australia)
demand significant managerial and staff effort to master the more complex issues and procedures involved

Sometimes companies are established from the outset to address global markets and do so successfully. These companies are often described as "born global". In most cases, however, companies first establish a firm foothold in the home market. This provides a good base from which to address the additional complexities of exporting.

You may find it useful to undertake a simple online test offered by Austrade.

Sources of Information

Two Federal Government agencies provide a wide range of information relevant to the needs of exporters.

Country Information

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is responsible for Australia's official overseas representation. The Department collects a wide variety of information on countries with which Australia trades including economic and political information. The Department is also responsible for negotiating international trade agreements both multilateral (with many countries together) and bilateral (with individual country trading partners).

Export Markets

Australia's official export promotion and development agency the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade), offers a wide variety of information on country markets on its website at: www.austrade.gov.au. The site also details services available to exporters from Austrade, which maintains a large network of overseas offices.

Austrade maintains a regional office in Canberra headed by:

The Trade Commissioner
ACT & Southern NSW
Telephone: +61 (02) 6201 7572
Facsimile: +61 (02) 6201 7674

Export Programs and Services

TradeStart

The TradeStart program is a package of free services designed to assist small and medium sized Australian companies develop their business overseas and market their first export sale.

The program gives Australian businesses the best possible start to exporting by providing a wide range of free services to new exporters including advice and information about getting into exporting, export coaching and assistance on the ground of foreign markets.

To find out more about TradeStart visit the Austrade website.

Austrade Assistance

Austrade is the key Government agency concerned with supporting and facilitating Australian exporters. It maintains a network of offices covering most significant export markets throughout the world and can provide assistance from the stage of preparation for export to help with in-country market research and in-market support for exporters.

Austrade is represented locally by:

The Trade Commissioner
ACT & Southern NSW.
Email: brent.juratowitch@austrade.gov.au
Website: www.austrade.gov.au
Telephone: +61 (02) 6201 7572
Facsimile: +61 (02) 6201 7674

The ACT Exporters' Network

The ACT Exporters' Network was established, and is sponsored, by the Canberra Business Council's International Sub-Committee and works closely with the ACT Government, Austrade and the kindred organisations of the Canberra Business Council.

The Exporters' Network provides a forum for exporters to join together and share knowledge and experience to advance their own businesses, as well as providing private sector leadership of the Canberra Region export drive.

A unique contribution of the Network is to create a forum where exporters meet to learn from each other. The Network works with a range of organisations including Austrade, Business and Industry Development and the NSW Institute of Export, and invites these and other bodies, as well as exporting businesses, to contribute to its activities.

The benefits of membership of the Exporters' Network include:

networking with other exporters to share experiences and market knowledge between exporters (and intending exporters);
one-on-one mentoring of new exporters by experienced exporters who, together, earn more than $50 million a year from exports and employ more than 300 people in the region;
access to a growing knowledge base of export skills and market knowledge; and
opportunities for training and development in export and overseas operations.

If you would like to find out more about the Exporters’ Network:

Telephone: +61 2 6247 4199
Email: secretariat@cbc.asn.au

Help for Exporters outside the ACT

Trade Start

Trade Start is a partnership between Austrade and a range of public and private sector service providers. It is designed to improve access for small to medium businesses in regional and rural Australia to the export assistance services of Austrade. A national network of 18 TradeStart offices is now delivering the market expertise of Austrade's global network to business in regional Australia.

Commonwealth Government Assistance

AusIndustry , an Australian Government agency, have prepared a suite of programs designed to help businesses in a number of areas. Of direct relevance to exporters is the Tradex scheme that provides for exemption from import duty for goods that are to be re-exported. Other programs offer more general assistance, for example innovation may include support of Research and Development projects, commercialisation of inventions and securing venture capital funding. There are also some programs related to specific industries.

Financial Programs

The Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) is a government instrumentality that provides a range of finance and payments insurance products designed to help exporters. Exporters may insure with EFIC against non-payment for exports arising either from commercial or political factors. EFIC also provides a range of financing products.

New exporters are advised to talk first with their own banks about export finance issues.

The Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) Scheme , administered by Austrade, provides assistance to small to medium (SME) Australian exporters developing export business by repaying part of their promotional expenses. Grants are subject to strict eligibility criteria.

Export Information and Training

The Australian Institute of Export provides a range of training courses in export topics focusing on such practical issues as export documentation.

The Institute publishes a useful reference, the Export Handbook (17th ed. 2000). A copy of this publication can be ordered online via the Institute's website .

Another useful reference is Export Finance - A Guide for Australian Managers by Donald G. Ross, published in 1999 and available from Waratah Finance Services Pty Ltd. To order a copy contact:

Telephone/Facsimile: +61 (02) 9626 2432