Australia’s largest network of businesses, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has welcomed the Federal Government’s plan to increase funding for the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme, in the Federal Budget.
“The Australian Chamber’s , released earlier this week, highlighted the key challenges facing Australian Exporters. The Federal Government’s announced funding increase will help our exporters to increase their efforts to enter and develop new markets,” Australian Chamber CEO, James Pearson, said today
“We have been lobbying on behalf of exporters for funding to be reinstated to the 2009 high point of $200 million annually. This announcement goes some way toward that goal.
“The EMDG scheme returns over $7 to the Australian economy from every $1 invested, making this one of the most successful schemes the Government administers.
“The scheme assists firms by providing a rebate against their qualifying expenditure. But the scheme operates retrospectively, so exporters apply for the rebate without knowing if they will receive anything if the funding is oversubscribed.
“Today’s announcement will relieve some of the pressures that exporters face and should allow more businesses to gain better rebates, which in turn allows them to invest more in developing export markets.
“This is win-win for exporters and the people who work for them. We applaud the Government for responding positively to our call.”
The Australian Chamber speaks for over 300,000 businesses employing millions of Australians in every sector of our economy and in every part of our country
