Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, has welcomed the strong results reported by the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) showing record exports supported last year by EFIC, increased support for small exporters, and a return to profit. "EFIC performed strongly during a difficult year for Australian exporters," Mr Vaile said in the tabling of EFIC's Annual Report in Parliament today. "EFIC was able to support an increased volume of Australian exports ($7.6 billion) to 163 countries during 1998/99, at a time when overall Australian exports declined." Mr Vaile said EFIC's capacity to respond quickly played an important role in keeping exports going to trading partners experiencing severe but temporary problems. Asia was now the largest single region by volume of business supported by EFIC. Almost 40% of EFIC's credit insurance business was in Asia, double that of two years ago. In Korea, EFIC supported almost $2 billion worth of exports during the crisis, using its own risk capacity and special facilities provided by the Government. "With growth now resuming in Asia, some of the pressure on EFIC's services should ease. We should see EFIC's business return to 'pre-crisis' levels as exporters, banks and commercial insurers rebuild their risk capacity," Mr Vaile said. Most of EFIC's clients are smaller companies. Half of them have an annual turnover of less than $10 million. Mr Vaile said it was vital for Australia that small to medium sized companies were able to get into, and stay committed, to exporting. A major focus of EFIC's business was working with small companies and their banks to manage their export risks. "EFIC paid out $21.4 million in claims last year. Almost 60 per cent of the more than 200 claims paid were for less than $50,000 … payments can make the difference between staying in business and closing down." EFIC reported profit after tax of $26.3 million on business
done on its own account. This was a significant turnaround from
the loss last year of $9.5 million a EFIC
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