Recent cuts in the Federal Budget to the popular Export Market Development Grants scheme puts a question mark over SME exporter entitlements for 2009 and 2010, according to capital consultants Business Strategies International (BSI).
The EMDG scheme has helped businesses generate more than $5 billion worth of exports, employing some 60,000 Australians for the investment of approximately $200 million last year, said Harvey Gartrell, spokesperson for BSI.
Reducing the amount available in the scheme is a blow to exporters, especially smaller businesses, he said. “The Government’s failure to provide additional funding in the budget for this scheme places further unnecessary pressures on export-oriented Australian businesses and hampers their efforts to realise existing and future export opportunities.”
Exporters that have applied under the scheme should not expect to recover the full amount requested, with Gartrell saying it looks like only about 60 percent will be paid back.
“We now call for the government to reconsider the EMDG funding, as it did in 2008/09 and 2009/10, when it provided extra funding to ensure exporters received their expected entitlements,” he said.
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