New incentives for exporters
The State Government has doubled its financial support to eligible individual exporters and made the funding more accessible in a move designed to boost offshore marketing efforts.
The revamp of the former Gateway Business program will ensure that funding goes to the most active and prepared exporters by allowing a successful grant recipient to access further financial support as they pursue more export opportunities.
Minister for Investment and Trade Martin Hamilton-Smith said the new Export Partnership Program provides 50:50 funding to eligible South Australian companies to pursue international market development opportunities.
“This initiative which replaces the Gateway Business Program, will ensure that South Australian companies remain globally competitive and have access to overseas markets,” Hamilton-Smith said today.
“The current funding pool for the Export Partnership Program is $492,000, which will be expanded to $731,000 in 2015-16. Current and aspiring exporters can apply for funding of up to $50,000 over two years for eligible export projects and activities.
“Grants may be used to support coaching, training, market intelligence and mentoring in order to plan for international opportunities and build their export capability.
“Our redesigned export program will help companies get access to the right tools and support to grow and build international networks that can often be financially challenging to access.”
The new program will:
- Reduce the minimum turnover threshold requirement from $150,000 to $100,000 to increase the eligibility for newer or ‘born global’ businesses.
- Double the amount of funds available to individual companies from $25,000 to $50,000.
- Allow companies to apply for funding multiple times until they reach $50,000.
- Remove previous caps for individual activities to encourage greater autonomy for companies to determine expenditure plans for their export marketing strategies.
- Allow previous recipients of the former Market Access Program (MAP) and the Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) to apply and revisit markets adversely affected by the high Australian dollar.
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Foreshadowing the changes in early February, Hamilton-Smith said that he had been concerned that past funding rounds had not expended all of the available cash.
“That was unacceptable to me and I instructed my agency to ensure that every dollar is deployed each year and it is partly why I called for a complete review as Minister of the rules for the management of this program so that we get it all out into the hands of business,” Hamilton-Smith said.
Applications for the new program close on Friday, 10 April, 2015.
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