TRAINING AVAILABLE TO HELP MONTANA AND NORTHWEST COMPANIES INCREASE FOREIGN SALES, U.S. JOBS
Companies like American Eagle Instruments Inc. in Missoula, Mont., and Quad Five in Ryegate, Mont., have dramatically expanded their businesses by selling products overseas with the financial support of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank).
Now other Montana companies can learn how to increase export sales and jobs and minimize risk, and local banks can learn how to work with Ex-Im Bank in financing those exports at the Intermountain States Trade and Exporter Seminar June 24-25 at the Montana World Trade Center in Missoula, Mont.
EVENT:Intermountain States Trade and Exporter Seminar
WHEN: Lender Seminar: June 24, 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Exporter Seminar: June 25, 8:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m.
WHERE:Montana World Trade Center
Gallagher Business Building, Room 123
Missoula, Mont.
COST:Lenders: $119 (may attend both seminars)
Exporters: $49 (includes materials)
TO REGISTER:Log on to www.exim.gov and click on the seminars link, call
(202) 565-3912or fax an application to (202) 565-3723
Ex-Im Bank is hosting the seminar in cooperation with the Montana World Trade Seminar, local hosts, the U.S. Commercial Service of the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration. The training is designed to help companies of all sizes to learn how to find and finance foreign buyers and increase their sales. Attendees will learn how to use federal programs to find international buyers, access valuable trade information, obtain working capital loans, protect against the risk of nonpayment and offer foreign buyer financing.
Ex-Im Bank helped us grow, said David Keech, president of American Eagle Instruments Inc., which exports dental instruments to markets such as Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Japan. In 1998 when we started using Ex-Im Bank, we exported to very few foreign markets. Now we export to more than 40.
Wiley S. Micks, president of Quad Five, which has used Ex-Im Bank insurance since 1999 to sell animal blood products for diagnostic testing kits to countries including Israel, Switzerland and Canada, said: Before 1999, our sales were almost stagnant. Now they are increasing by 20 percent a year. The Ex-Im Bank insurance strengthens our foreign receivables in the eyes of our lenders, which enables us to get the working capital financing we need to fill foreign orders.
The exporter seminar also will address special Ex-Im Bank programs for environmental and service exports, and small, minority-owned and woman-owned businesses. Case studies and classroom discussions will facilitate attendees' understanding of the many dynamic trade products and services available.
Local hosts of the seminar include the Southeast Wyoming Small Business Development Center, the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center, the International Trade Alliance of Spokane, the Boise Chamber of Commerce, the Idaho State Department of Commerce, the Montana Manufacturers Extension Center, and the Gallatin Development Corporation of Bozeman.
Ex-Im Bank, the official export credit agency of the United States, is in its 70th year of helping finance the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export credit insurance and direct loans. In fiscal year 2003, Ex-Im Bank authorized financing to support $14.3 billion of U.S. exports worldwide. For more information, visit www.exim.gov.