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STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT - A new partnership between the Stamford Chamber of Commerce and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) will help Connecticut small and medium-sized businesses grow their profits and American jobs by competing in the global marketplace.

Ex-Im Bank Board Director Diane Farrell and the Stamford Chamber's Paul B. Edelberg, an attorney with Murtha Cullina LLP, today signed the agreement making the Chamber a member of Ex-Im Bank's City/State Partners Initiative.

Ex-Im Bank sees this partnership as a strategic part of meeting President Obama's National Export Initiative (NEI) goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015, Farrell said at the signing ceremony at the Holiday Inn in Stamford. The Stamford Chamber, by extending its small business programs into the export arena, helps Ex-Im Bank turbo-charge its support of even larger volumes of exports within Connecticut's small business community.

Stamford has long been recognized as an international business center for our global companies located here, Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia said at the event. This new program will encourage and help our small and medium-sized Stamford-based companies to think about global opportunities in their forward plans.

As a member of the City/State Partners Initiative, the Stamford Chamber can help local businesses learn about and apply for a range of Ex-Im Bank financing products:

• short-term export-credit insurance to mitigate the risk of foreign buyer nonpayment
• loan guarantees to increase export-related working capital
• medium-term financing for foreign buyers.

The City/State partnership is part of the Stamford Chamber's new program known as SITREP (Stamford Chamber International Trade Resource Program) to help new and existing area businesses export, utilizing federal, state and private assistance programs to increase their business.

SITREP should offer an excellent opportunity to help local companies grow their exports, and to help start-up businesses enter the global marketplace, said Stamford Chamber of Commerce President Jack Condlin. We expect Ex-Im Bank to be a driver in this effort. To learn more about how the Stamford Chamber can help local companies access Ex-Im Bank financing, call Jack Condlin at (203)359-4761.

Farrell also praised the efforts of the Middletown U.S. Export Assistance Center in raising local inter-agency and small business awareness, and helping to jump-start the two new Connecticut-Ex-Im Bank partnerships.

The Stamford Chamber is Connecticut's second City-State partner. The Connecticut Development Authority (CDA), the state's quasi-public business financing arm, also recently joined the program.

Ex-Im Bank has helped Connecticut companies export $12 million of goods and services so far in fiscal year 2011 (beginning Oct. 1, 2010), and $205.6 million for all of FY2010 (ending last Sept. 30). In the Stamford area, the Bank supported $1.9 million in exports so far in FY2011 and $122.8 million for all of FY2010.

Ex-Im Bank, an independent, self-sustaining federal agency, helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in export financing and strengthening U.S. export competitiveness. In fiscal year 2010, the Bank posted its second consecutive record breaking year, including preliminary figures of $24.5 billion in export financing, which supported $34.4 billion worth of American exports and 227,000 American jobs at more than 3,300 U.S. companies. Of these authorizations, more than $5 billion was for small businesses — another record for the Bank. To reach Ex-Im Bank and its new Small Business web portal, go to /smallbusiness/.